Coaches Clubhouse

Few, if any, coaches in college sports came out of the COVID year more impressively than Arizona women's basketball coach Adia Barnes. After missing out on a chance to take her alma mater to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005 last year, her program became the breakout stars of this year's March Madness, making their first Final Four in history and taking down perennial juggernaut UConn. She did that all while juggling an infant she gave birth to during the pandemic and a system not set up to support working moms, an issue she was ready to call out in front of the national media. Nicole Auerbach talks to her about all of that, plus her relationship with Aari McDonald and where she can take the program from here.

On this edition of Coaches Clubhouse: The COVID Year, we have an interview that Nicole Auerbach did with Maryland football coach Mike Locksley before the previous Big Ten football season. They discuss how he used his new free time during the early days of the pandemic to start the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches to help promote diversity within his profession. They also talk about the approach he took to prepare his athletes for any number of playing scenarios that could occur due to the uncertainty around the season.

On this episode of Coaches Clubhouse: The COVID Year, Nicole Auerbach talks to East LA College men's basketball coach John Mosley. ELAC and their 2019-2020 campaign were featured on the most recent season of Netflix's hit show "Last Chance U" and Coach Mosley is in the unique position to have his reaction to his sport being shut down due to the pandemic on tape and seen by millions of viewers. He and Nicole discuss how he felt when his team lost an opportunity to compete for a state championship, the struggle to get his players scholarships and the severe strain in junior college athletics still being felt.

As we continue our Season 2 exploration of how coaches from all over the sports world dealt with the COVID year, we turn to a unique circumstance. All of the other coaches we've talked to have long, established relationships with their athletes, but that wasn't the case of Brown University Quarterbacks Coach Heather Marini, who had just gotten her job right before the pandemic shut down the sport. Nicole Auerbach talks to Marini about navigating that transition to a fully virtual coaching schedule, how they dealt with the Ivy League cancelling the 2020 season completely, and what it means for her to be a woman coaching in Division 1 football.

Coaches Clubhouse continues it's deep dive into how coaches dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic over the last year with another Olympic coach. This time it's US men's swimming coach Dave Durden. Nicole Auerbach talks to Durden about the relief he felt when the Tokyo games were postponed, how the team was able to find ways to train in the most surreal circumstances and how to develop a schedule when you have no idea what shoe will drop next.