Sport and the Growing Good

In the second part of our three episodes that focus on the great law professor, public leader and athletics leader, we discussed: 1. The importance of reading over the years. “It fed my curiosity and desire to learn…It helped develop in me a sense of idealism in the world and possibilities in the world…It led me to have some illusions about what was possible in the world.” 2. Keeping a journal every day: “What I think about. What we do.” 3. “I’ve done my part.” 4. Attempting to become more present. 5. “Poised to learn.” 6. A goal for law students: growth for the rest of their lives. 7. “The law in action.” 8. A sound structural education in law school. “The bones of the law.” Principles and specifics. 9. A metaphor for lawyer prep: playwright vs. critic. 10. Being both a law professor and the head of corrections. 11. “On the ground understanding.” 12. Developing trust as head of corrections. 13. The value of “unglamorous” jobs as a youngster. 14. The influence of Jesuit education. 15. Law and leadership as a “helping profession.” 16. “Creating value” as a leader. 17. The importance of communication as a leader. 18. Learning how to navigate multiple contexts as a leader. “Assess it. Look at it as carefully as you can. Then figure out what to do.” 19. “You can’t become too attached to your own view.” 20. “The anchoring effect.” 21. Diagnostic interviews. 22. Moral authority. “It’s earned. You’re not anointed with it.” 23. “A degree of humility is incredibly powerful.” 24. Living a balanced life. “The lives of our children and grandchildren are of first order importance.”

Walter Dickey recently retired from a long and distinguished professional life at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Among many other accomplishments and experiences, Walter was a tenured law professor; head of the Department of Corrections in Wisconsin; Chair of the Wisconsin athletic board; representative to NCAA and Big Ten Conference, and deputy athletic director. He’s published extensively and shaped his fields in many positive ways. But Walter’s much more than these achievements or positions. He’s been a son, brother, husband, father, friend, colleague, and mentor. He’s a man with broad experience, deep perspective. Walter says that he never spends much time thinking about his career or having been a leader, but in this three part series, we examine how this legendary UW leader has indeed lived an interesting and impactful life of leadership. In part 1, Walter described the time that he and his wife Mary spent in Ghana, just after he’d completed law school. He highlighted some of the impacts of that time in their lives and how it contributed to his development as an observer of the world. Walter then described the importance of partnership in his journey and he provided insight into how one of his key partners, Professor Frank Remington, went about mentoring with humility and generosity. Over the years it’s been a tremendous honor and privilege for me to get to learn from Walter – so learning more about his story was a very special opportunity for me.  We discussed: 1. Deciding to go to Ghana – “the adventure of our lives” and the “turning point of our lives.” 2. Not being part of the “American Embassy crowd” in Ghana. 3. Living in Ghana: heat, a coup, grocery shopping, time, food, etc. 4. Being an observer. 5. “We were completely reliant on each other.” 6. Walter and Mary in Ghana: “We developed confidence in ourselves. And we developed trust and confidence in people around us.” 7. Returning to the U.S: No money, a Ford Pinto, a broadened perspective, and an uncertain future. 8. Why every American should take advantages of opportunities to live abroad. 9. “I’ve never thought of myself as having a career.” 10. Learning to live amid doubt and uncertainty in a condition of not knowing (Shakespeare). 11. Contrasting Oedipus & Socrates coming to a fork in the road. Socrates reflected and considered where the two roads might go. 12. Mary: “As the future rises up before us, we’ll figure it out.” 13. “Carefully observing the world and people around me. And then figuring out how to best proceed.” 14. The raw materials of leadership: observing and active imagination (and reading). 15. What Walter learned from reading as a youngster: the triumph of virtue after struggle. Idealism. 16. C.S. Lewis: reading teaches us that we’re not alone. 17. “Solving problems is fun. Spouting off theoretical things isn’t, at least to me.” 18. Working for UW Law Professor Frank Remington, who was “incredibly intelligent, observant, and humble.” 19. Diagnostic interviews: “a legal physical.” 20. Frank Remington as a mentor. “Humility was his hallmark.”

Travis Dorsch is an associate professor at Utah State University, where he studies and teaches about youth sports. Professor Dorsch’s work influences the broader field in multiple ways – especially in our move toward adopting more holistic understandings of the youth sports experience. A former NFL football player and now father of young athletes, Travis brings a well-informed perspective to the table. On this SGG episode, we discussed: 1. Travis’ experiences as a multi-sport athlete in Bozeman, MT. 2. Some of the coaches who impacted him during middle and high school years. 3. Playing sports in Bozeman. 4. How Travis’ experiences as an athlete led him to a career studying sports. 5. What is an “integrated understanding of the youth sports system?” 6. What he means when he says, “I think parents are trapped” in the youth sports environment. 7. Advice Travis has for parents of young athletes. (intrinsic motivation) 8. Advice Travis has for more mature, gifted athletes. (surround them with good people and be willing to let go) 9. Families’ financial investments in youth sports. One interesting finding: The more money we invest can lead to increased pressure, less enjoyment, and increased likelihood of kids dropping out of sports. 10. Why we need to think about siblings in sports. 11. How Travis’ professional and personal experiences come together.

Research shows us many benefits from participating in athletics. But each young athlete’s pathways is different. Three key members of the UW national championship volleyball team, Gio Civita, Danielle Hart, and Grace Loberg, joined SGG to discuss some key aspects of their remarkable journeys through sports. 1. Grace’s initial volleyball experiences with her mom and at school in 4th grade. “It was not good volleyball, but it was so fun!” 2. Danielle started volleyball in 7th grade. Volleyball became an important part of her life during challenging times. “Volleyball became the outlet for me.” 3. Gio’s volleyball experience as a child in Italy. Sports were separated from school. “If you decide to be in sports, it’s like a job.” 4. How sports affected sibling dynamics in their families. Grace: “It was a challenge for my parents balancing everything.” 5. Multi-sport participation decisions, including the importance of supportive coaches who make it work. 6. Factors to consider when choosing a club team. 7. Specific youth sports moments that led to broader opportunity. 8. What coaches are looking for when they recruit young athletes. 9. What caught Coach Sheffield’s eye when he was recruiting her: The way she supported her teammates. 10. The importance of a coach delivering feedback to Danielle. 11. Coaches who do (and don’t) understand the developmental stages of their athletes. 12. Coach Sheffield’s thoughtfulness about “every single thing.” 13. Fostering joy in youth sports. 14. Mental and psychological aspects of getting through injuries. Danielle: Embracing the broader view of the team. Developing empathy. Building leadership skills. Staying connected. Taking it day by day. 15. Gio on going through injuries: “It opened other doors in the long run.” 16. How can we make youth sports better? Danielle: make it less expensive. Grace: scale back the pressure. Gio: balance/integrate academics and athletics.

Julie Stamm is a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her book, The Brain on Youth Sports: The Science, the Myths, and the Future, makes a major contribution to the broader field of concussion research. Dr. Stamm continues to conduct cutting-edge research and will make a major positive impact on the field with her scholarship and multi-dimensional perspective. In this SGG episode, we discussed: 1. Growing up a 3-sport athlete in Mosinee, Wisconsin. 2. The role and impact of sports in Mosinee. 3. Playing against Candace Parker at a Chicago basketball camp. 4. Her pathway to becoming a researcher and scientist…including being impacted by one young athlete’s concussion. 5. How being an athlete shapes her approach to research. 6. Understanding what concussions are. 7. Peaks and plateaus in brain development intersecting with sports experiences: “There’s a lot going on in that 8-12 (year old) range…And that’s also a time when lots of kids are getting started in sports.” 8. The multiple forms of “repetitive impact.” 9. The implications of repetitive impacts…even those that don’t result in concussion symptoms: “These hits aren’t without consequence even though we don’t see it right away.” 10. Myth: contact sports impacts aren’t as bad in youth sports. The “bobblehead effect” and the number of impacts. 11. Hits per event are similar in youth and high school football. 12. Why she wrote the book. And why she wrote it in an accessible fashion. 13. Bad argument: Contact sports are safe enough. “Is safer than ever safe enough?” 14. The limits of helmets. “No helmet will prevent concussions.” 15. Myth: You have to hit/play the way the pros do in order to make it to college and/or the pros. (not true!) 16. “At the younger ages we should promote having fun in sports.” 17. Flaws in common “toughness arguments.” 18. How we can best communicate about and implement important research on concussion in youth sports. 19. The role of coaches in changing culture around safer contact sports. 20. Her ongoing research projects.

Matt Trnian started as an intern at Grand Park. He moved up through the ranks and now serves as Director. Matt joined SGG to discuss his leadership journey. He also discussed Grand Park’s evolution…including what’s next for one of the nation’s premier sports and events facilities. We discussed: 1. A common theme among his best coaches from growing up: a focus on developing better people. 2. What he learned from his head high school football coach, Mike Elder: Accountability and investment in each person in the program. 3. Starting as an intern at Grand Park. Matt’s aspirations and responsibilities. 4. Key stakeholders and events along the way, including the Indianapolis Colts holding training camp at Grand Park. 5. Early resistance to Grand Park. “It was easy to be skeptical…It was an unproven product at that time.” (Many of the critics have changes their minds.) 6. Influencing broader community development. 7. Grand Park’s research and development hub. “We’re trying to stay on the cutting edge.” 8. Matt’s observations of the youth sports industry.

Several years ago, we wrote about an "NFL ready" football player, Ed Oliver. He's achieved success with the Buffalo Bills. But readiness questions in the sports pipeline persist for millions of young people around the country. Beyond physical readiness, we must consider academic, social, and other types of readiness. Participation is one aspect of life readiness that is overlooked. The more we can keep kids engaged in high quality sporting environments, the better. Trends in participation at youth and college levels are troubling -- and must be addressed. In this SGG episode, we identify some of these trends. And we launch a series examining participation and readiness in the sports pipeline.

Originally from Marietta, Ohio, Betsy Mitchell escaped Buckeye territory to become one of the great American swimmers of her day. She is a multi-time national, world, and Olympic champion. Betsy’s post-swimming career includes graduate school at the University of Texas and Harvard, coaching at Dartmouth and, now, as the athletic director at Caltech. She is a respected leader in college sports. Betsy joined the SGG podcast, where we discussed: 1. Betsy’s introduction story to sport: A rejection from t-ball and a sign at the YMCA for swim lessons. 2. Donna Lopiano’s influence on Betsy at the University of Texas. “She was always pushing me to do more.” 3. Key characteristics of good coaching: Keeping it fun. Using sport as a tool, not as an end in and of itself. Keeping balanced. 4. Her perspective on sport. “This is only part of me. Yes, I see myself as an athlete. Yes, I’m a swimmer. But I’ve always had such a rich ‘other life’ – and I credit my parents for that.” 5. “The training was hard. But they just set the table and allowed me to come into it.” 6. Her college coach Richard Quick: “You guys have talent. It’s yours to harvest.” 7. Always being aware of being a good leader. Being service-oriented and inclusive as a leader – even as a younger person. 8. “This was never just about me…I realized it was very representative.” 9. When she first started as a young coach at Dartmouth. “The women that were there didn’t see me as an Olympic swimmer. I was just their leader, just their coach. It was very collaborative.” 10. Books/authors that have impacted Betsy: Jeff Janson. Jim Collins. Brene Brown. “Lincoln on Leadership.” 11. “I don’t think that my way is the only way.” 12. Asking more questions than making big statements. 13. Creating a learning environment for her staff. A three-pronged approach: 1) hiring willing learners, curious people; 2) Funding ongoing learning; 3) We just talk about it all the time. 14. Why Betsy does not like coaching conventions. “I would rather have them take a Harvard business class online. Or take four coaches who you really admire to lunch…” 15. As a leader and coach: “You have to be good enough to always give the ‘why.’” 16. Betsy’s daily routines: 1) Exercise. “That’s my grounding feature…I do it for my own health but also to be seen…I make sure I work out here at least a couple times a week…So that I’m available, but also so that they see me. That I validate their own priority about their health.” 2) Being out and about. “I do not sit in this office all day.” Being intentional about checking in with people. “Not even about work…’how’s it going? How can I help.’” 17. A learned skill as a leader: “I try not to react. I try to respond.” 18. Her love of adventure…and the importance of adventure in her life: “This is play. The broad notion of play. Play is essential…It’s a way to fill your soul. To have a dynamic life.” 19. Purposeful travel: “Immersing myself in what I do not know…Go where you do not know and where you are in the minority.” 20. Always having an identity as being more than just an athlete. “I never wanted to be known as only a swimmer.” 21. On the importance of leaders and coaches ensuring that student-athletes have balanced lives: “We have to serve young people in that. Because they can get lost later.”

I traveled to the Pettit Center in Milwaukee, home of DASH, to learn about competing, coaching, and leading from two speedskating legends. Bonnie Blair Cruikshank is one of the most successful Olympic athletes of all time, having won five Olympic speedskating golds and countless other medals and championships. Dave Cruikshank was also an Olympian, a world champion, and one of the elite skaters in the world. This husband and wife duo inspired a generation of Olympic athletes. They continue to take the lead in promoting speedskating and Olympic sports in the United States and beyond. DASH is a premier training organization that prepares highest-level athletes to reach peak performance. I sat with Bonnie and Dave in the DASH training space – located on the second level of the Pettit – to learn from these remarkable people. On this SGG episode, we discussed: 1. Dave’s early and ongoing attraction to speedskating: “I liked going fast. And I still like going fast.” 2. The mentoring that occurred across generations in the U.S. speedskating community – leading to many Olympians and world champions. 3. The impact Olympian Cathy Priestner had on Bonnie’s early path in the sport. “She took me under her wing…It was a neat building of a great friendship…That relationship was a very big part of my journey.” 4. Bonnie training pretty much on her own in Champaign, IL during her early days on the U.S. team. 5. How and when Bonnie knew she had to make coaching changes during her career. 6. Dave being coached by a 4-time Olympian in Northbrook. 7. Dave: “I didn’t really start training until I was 16. I was on my first Olympic team at 18.” 8. Coaching rule of thumb: “If we get hit by a bus, you should be able to take care of yourself. Our job is to educate you and give you as much knowledge and information on technique, training, sleep, nutrition, and preparation as we can. We will help guide you, but it’s your journey.” 9. His athletes keep journals. (What’s in the journals?) 10. Bonnie on the lack of performance training research: “We were flying by the seat of our pants.” 11. Why a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as pre-race meal made sense for Bonnie. (insights from special ops leaders) 12. The importance of getting to know your athletes. 13. Coach and athlete as “caddy-player relationship.” 14. “How can you get the most out of your players if you don’t know them?! It’s staggering to us that that communication is not taking place in a lot of sports.” 15. Cybernetics testing: Bonnie and Dave’s two tests were the hardest they’d ever done. Why? “Because we can hurt. We can take a lot of stuff. We put up with a lot to get where we want to go…If I know I want to race really well, I know there’s some stuff I have to do to hurt mentally and physically.” 16. Right-sizing commitment and sacrifice in sport. Bonnie: “If you want to take it to the absolute levels, there’s absolute commitment.” Constantly “checking ourselves” when it comes to deciding how hard to push. 17. Dave’s early goals: D-1 soccer and pro soccer. Didn’t have concrete Olympic aspirations until six months before his first Olympic trials. 18. Bonnie: “I think my dad saw something in me.” 19. In her third race (ever!), Bonnie placed 8th in the Olympic trials. 20. Bonnie: “We never went on family vacations…We went to Chicago every weekend for races…That’s what we did as a family. I never knew anything different…Skating was the thing that I loved the most.”    For more episode notes from the Bonnie and Dave interview, refer to sportandthegrowinggood.com.

Steve Collins is a teacher and the head basketball coach at Memorial High School in Madison. His long track record of success includes multiple state championships and coach of the year awards. Coach Collins is also known for his broader work in the coaching world, including a business, active social media presence, and multiple podcasts. He joined the SGG podcast and we discussed: 1. Learning from his dad, his brother, and Madison East basketball Coach Boyle. 2. The Great Swami 3. Coach Boyle: “He had a lot of confidence in me.” 4. “When I speak at clinics, I ask coaches to close their eyes and imagine the coach that was their most influential coach and why…It’s never Xs and Os. It’s an interpersonal thing that made them feel complete…How did he make them feel? I try to remember that when I’m coaching too.” 5. Human beings want to feel loved and they want to have meaning. 6. The importance of having close relational connections with the team: “It’s the secret sauce. It’s what’s most important.” 7. “Taking a piece” of each coach he worked for. 8. Developing a blue print for building the Memorial program: scouting, summer camps, youth program… and a future NBA player. 9. The importance of having smart and supportive administration in a school. 10. “If I was coaching the same way I was 25 years ago, I would be unemployed…Things change. You better adapt with the times.” 11. “You have to adjust. You have to see your surroundings. See your players. See what their strengths and weaknesses are. And as a teacher, you always want to accentuate the positives and work on the negatives.” 12. Having a growth mindset as a coach. 13. Being willing to “throw out” plays and schemes that aren’t working. 14. High school coaches can’t recruit players to a system – so they need to be willing to recognize what they have talent-wise and appropriately adapt. 15. Delegating roles among a coaching staff. 16. The two most important days for a coach: the day you choose your team and the day you choose your staff. 17. Is there still a place for clinics? Yes, for bonding. Less so for content. 18. A perspective lesson from Covid: “Let’s enjoy the time we have!”