The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Paul Barnett & Jim Woolfrey
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May 8, 2025 • 48min

Ken Niumatalolo

Ken Niumatalolo is an American College Football coach.Ken played college football as a quarterback at the University of Hawaii. After graduating he became an assistant at his alma mater , eventually becoming an offensive coordinator at the Naval Academy in 1995. His career progressed and he eventually became the Head Coach of Navy in 2007 and would lead them for 15 years, accumulating the most wins of any coach in the programs history. Along the way, he won 6 Commander-in-Chief trophies, 4 bowl game trophies and 3 AAC West Division titles. In 2023 he left Navy and spent a season as the Director of Leadership at UCLA, and then in 2024 took on the head coach role at San Jose State. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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May 1, 2025 • 49min

On Joe Mazzulla

Today’s episode is focuses on NBA Championship wining coach Joe Mazzulla. I am joined for the discussion by Dr. David Turner who has been on the podcast many times before and is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge in the UK. Joe Mazzulla is the latest subject in his learning from legendary coaches series. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Apr 24, 2025 • 1h

John Kessel

Our Great Coach on this episode is John Kessel. As a volleyball player, John participated in 16 U.S. Open Championships and played professionally in Europe. He started coaching at the Collegiate level in the USA in 1970 and led teams to National titles in 1986 and 1987. He was the Team Leader for the 2000 USA Olympic Beach Volleyball Teams in Sydney, which brought home one gold medal, and for the 2004 USA Paralympic Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team in Athens, which came home with the bronze medal. He has had the most profound impact on the game, though, as a coach and administrator. He worked for over 30 years at Volleyball USA and 20+ years at World ParaVolley.He is the author of over 12 books, including the IMPACT coaching manual, which is now in its 33rd edition. In 2007, the Institute for International Sport named him a Sport Ethics Fellow, and in 2024, he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com John consults with other Olympic Sports, well over 20 in fact, and travels around the world talking about coaching, particularly in the youth space.Our Great Coach on this episode is John Kessel. As a volleyball player, John participated in 16 U.S. Open Championships and played professionally in Europe. He started coaching at the Collegiate level in the USA in 1970 and led teams to National titles in 1986 and 1987. He was the Team Leader for the 2000 USA Olympic Beach Volleyball Teams in Sydney, which brought home one gold medal, and for the 2004 USA Paralympic Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team in Athens, which came home with the bronze medal. He has had the most profound impact on the game, though, as a coach and administrator. He worked for over 30 years at Volleyball USA and 20+ years at World ParaVolley.He is the author of over 12 books, including the IMPACT coaching manual, which is now in its 33rd edition. In 2007, the Institute for International Sport named him a Sport Ethics Fellow, and in 2024, he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame. John consults with other Olympic Sports, well over 20 in fact, and travels around the world talking about coaching, particularly in the youth space. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Apr 10, 2025 • 54min

Anna Stembridge

Anna Stembridge is a former netball player and coach. Anna played in the UK Netball Superleague for Team Bath and the Celtic Dragons. She represented Wales on the international stage before transitioning into coaching in 2008. She then served as an Assistant with Team Bath and helped them to the Superleague titles in 2009 and 2010. She also served as an Assistant for the UK National team before taking over in 2011 and leading them to 2011 World Netball Series. In 2022 she stepped down as the Head Coach of Team Bath.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 27, 2025 • 52min

Luke Beveridge

Luke Beveridge is an Australian rules football coach and former player who played for Melbourne, Footscray and St Kilda in the . He retired in 1999 and, came back to play and coach for his alma mater, St Bedes. He was eventually appointed the teams Head Coach and won 3 consecutive premierships taking them team from C to A grade. After this, he spent time back in the AFL as an Assistant coach at Collingwood and Hawthorn, where both clubs won the Premiership. Then in 2014 he was appointed as Head Coach of the Western Bulldogs and led them to the premiership in 2016. For the way he condusted himself on the day they won the premiership he was awarded the Spirit of Sport at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Awards.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 13, 2025 • 1h 1min

Brian Goorjian

Our Great Coach on this episode is Brian Goorjian.Brian is a basketball coach. He was born in California but came to Australia as a 24-year-old to teach high school and play basketball in the late 1970s. In 1984, he was the inaugural captain of the Melbourne Tigers in the NBL and then transitioned into coaching after retirement. In a career that has spanned over 20 years in the National Basketball League, he has won 6 championships: two with the South East Melbourne Magic, three with the Sydney Kings and one with the South Dragons. He also spent time coaching in China, Japan and the Philippines. He also had two stints leading the Australian national team, known as the Boomers, and he famously led them to a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 27, 2025 • 47min

Rocco Meiring

Our great coach in this episode is Rocco Meiring.Rocco is a swimming coach from South Africa. He started out coaching in 1988 and by 1997 was the national coach director with the brief to develop internationally competitive swimmers; his first success came when Terence Parkin won a silver medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. He then coached the dual Olympic Gold medallist and world record holder Tatjana Schoenmaker. These days, he leads the Tuks Swimming Club in South Africa, including world junior champion Pieter Coetze. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 13, 2025 • 52min

Markus Weise

Our Great Coach on this episode is Markus Weise.He began coaching in the early 1990s and went to lead the German women's Team to gold at the 2004 Olympics and the German Men to gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. This made him the first person in field hockey history to win gold with Men and Woemns teams. He also led the German Men's team to the 2011 and 2013 European Championship and twice led the Men's Indoor team to world and European championships. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please get in touch with us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jan 30, 2025 • 55min

Guy Molloy

Our Great Coach on this episode is Guy Molloy.Guy is an Australian Basketball coach who started his professional career in 1989, coaching the Canberra Capitals in the Australian Women's National League.He then coached the Perth Breakers and was named coach of the year in 1995. During this time, he also served as an Assistant for the Australian National Team.He then coached the Cairns Taipans in the Australian Men's National League. In 2013, he returned to the Australian Women's National LeWomen'sd led the Melbourne Boomers to the championship in 2022. In 2018, he became Head Coach of the New Zealand women's National team, the Tall Ferns, leading them to the bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He is presently the coach of the Sydney Flames in the WNBL.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please get in touch with us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website, thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Nov 28, 2024 • 32min

On My Top 10 Insights

On this episode something a little different. As the 2024 season draws to a close I was doing a review and reflecting on some of the things the coaches I have interviewed over the last 4 years have said that have stayed with me afterwards. As I was scribbling them down, I thought I would turn it into a short podcast. And so here are my top 10 and a short description of why this resonated with me. For some of you, listening to these audio grabs might not be so surprising, but for me, coming from the corporate world, they challenged my thinking and, in some instances, altered my behavior. They are not in order of impact. I tried to rank them like that, but it was too hard. I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know how you feel about it and, if you are a regular listener, whether there is a sound bite or particular interview that resonated with you. I will gather these and do a listener version of this podcast format next season.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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