The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

🌟Explore Our Library: Dive into over 350 episodes featuring insights from coaching legends such asBoo Schexnayder and Dan Pfaff, Diljeet Taylor (BYU) and Beth Alford-Sullivan, as well as superstar coaches Petros Kyprianou (Illinois),Althea Thomas (Vanderbilt) and many more! Find us on Twitch.tv, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more!
🎙️ Create Your Own Podcast Episode: Reach out to Mike Cunningham for instruction on how to create your very ownGill1918 Project episode, which airs Tuesdays through Sundays. Find YOUR voice on the Gill Connections Podcast Network.
 
📲Stay Connected: Want to get in touch with our host, Mike Cunningham? Follow onTwitter (@MikeCunningham), email at [email protected], or text to 217-898-3038. We love hearing from you! 🎧👍

Katie is a mental skills coach and licensed therapist for Elevated Performance following a 13-year career as a professional runner including winning a US Road Mile Championship and being a World Indoor Championships 3000m finalist.
As a competitor at all levels, Katie had to learn to overcome pre-race nerves and anxiety. She shares proven techniques and strategies to help athletes begin to do the same in the episode and in this awesome FREE resource!

There’s something powerful about a coach who knew early.

Steven Sanchez didn’t just stumble into coaching—he was already studying it, researching it, and chasing it while still in high school in the Bronx. From a massive New York City high school campus to a small college in the South, his journey is anything but typical—and that’s exactly what makes it valuable.

This episode is about perspective. About hearing hard truths. About choosing a path before the path fully reveals itself.

Steven shares how a pivotal conversation with a mentor reshaped his trajectory, why he was studying coaching bios as a teenager, and how his willingness to bet on himself took him far from home in pursuit of growth.

🔑 In this episode:
🏙️ Growing up in the Bronx and navigating a 1,000-student freshman class that became 60 graduates
🏈 A football-first mindset—and the injury that forced a pivot
🎯 The moment a mentor told him: “Focus on throwing… and think about coaching”
🧠 Studying coaching paths BEFORE even getting to college
🗺️ Choosing a college based on geography, opportunity, and instinct—not just recruitment
🌱 Adjusting from a massive NYC environment to an 800-student college campus

💬 Quote from Steven: “I was looking at every school in the country… what have been the paths of the coaches? I was trying to figure out what I needed to do.”

This one’s for the coaches who are still figuring it out—and the ones who knew early and went all in.

🌟Explore Our Library: Dive into over 350 episodes featuring insights from coaching legends such asBoo Schexnayder and Dan Pfaff, Diljeet Taylor (BYU) and Beth Alford-Sullivan, as well as superstar coaches Petros Kyprianou (Illinois), Althea Thomas (Vanderbilt) and many more! Find us on Twitch.tv, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more!
🎙️ Create Your Own Podcast Episode: Reach out to Mike Cunningham for instruction on how to create your very ownGill1918 Project episode, which airs Tuesdays through Sundays. Find YOUR voice on the Gill Connections Podcast Network.
 
📲Stay Connected: Want to get in touch with our host, Mike Cunningham? Follow onTwitter (@MikeCunningham), email at [email protected], or text to 217-898-3038. We love hearing from you! 🎧👍

Grateful to Rekortan for hosting a Coaches Speaker Session at the 2026 Penn Relays. Recorded on Friday during the Coaches Hospitality, Rekortan invited coaches and Rekortan teammates to share their running and coaching experiences to give value to the audience. Gill Athletics is grateful for Rekortan's trust to record these sessions to bring them to you in our Gill1918 Project podcast format. There are six speakers in all, you can find them on the Gill Connections podcast published on these dates:

5/3 Greg Scholars -AP RANCH
5/9 Bella Whitaker- ON
5/10 MaryBeth Price -Rekortan
5/16 Bill Lawson - IMG Academy
5/17 Kevin Quadrozzi - ON
5/23 Guy Thomas - Rekortan

We love to being you other podcasts doing providing amazing value to the track and field coaching community. Today we feature the gang from Beyond the Blocks podcast. Go check them out on YouTube, Spotify and Apple. Also, don't forget the 'Gram.
Check them out next Monday May 4th as they feature the host of THIS podcast; Mike Cunningham.
In Episode 5 of the Beyond The Blocks Podcast, we sit down with James Daniels, Head of Sprints & Hurdles – High Performance for the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation (NSAF) and the NIKE ELITE program.James shares valuable insights into the development of elite sprinters and hurdlers and pulls back the curtain on how high-level athletes are built over time.In this episode we discuss:• How elite athletes structure training cycles throughout the year.• Common mistakes coaches, parents, and athletes make in the development process.• Why some youth prep phenoms struggle to keep improving in college.• What separates athletes who continue progressing from those who plateau.• The selection process and philosophy behind the Nike Elite program.Whether you’re a coach, athlete, or parent, this conversation provides practical insight into long-term athlete development and what it truly takes to succeed at the highest levels of track & field.🎙 Episode 5 – James DanielsHead of Sprints & Hurdles – High Performance👍 If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, and subscribe for more conversations with elite coaches, athletes, and leaders in track & field.#trackandfield #sprint #hurdles #athletics #athleticdevelopment #speed #trackcoach #beyondtheblockspodcast