Coaches

Disclaimer: This isn’t meant to be a review or ranking of my coaches, but rather the lessons learned and general impact they’ve had on me. Part of the reason I wanted to write this reflection is because I feel that every coach that I’ve encountered in my athletic career has had a distinct style and I’ve gained a lot from each one.

Dan Duclos – Dubuque Senior Swimming (Varsity)

Duclos never really gave me much personal attention because I wasn’t very good. However, the way he ran the team in general was hilarious. Each year he introduced a new dietary restriction which was going to elevate us to a new level of athleticism:

·      2010/11 – No sugar. This means, no soda, no Gatorade, no cookies, no candy, none of it. This was fine and actually improved my diet a lot, considering in middle school I arrived home from school every day and immediately drank a root beer and 2 hot dogs.

·      2011/12 – Whole wheat only, no enriched flours or pasta. This was also pretty sane

·      2012/13 – Protein loading. His recommendation was that we cut down on the carbs, especially before meets, and really up our daily intake of protein. He wanted us to consume at least one protein shake a day & consume as much meat and poultry as possible. We all developed some really bad farts & gastro-intestinal distress. This is also undoubtedly part of how/why I filled out in high school

·      2013/14 – Gluten free! No carbs whatsoever. For the whole season. When almost all of us eat lunch in a high school cafeteria. I don’t think anyone actually took him seriously

·      Rumor has it that the year after I left he got really big into coconut oil.

Despite being a sucker for dieting trends, Duclos was a great coach. He exemplified the idea of changing your game when you’re at the top of your game. We were already a successful program, but he was always looking for ways to turn us into a 2^nd place finish at state into a championship team. Some other quirks:

·      He was really big into mental prep. We would visualize for about 15 minutes about 3 times a week before practice starting 3 weeks before our last meet

·      He tried and succeeded in selling us these all-natural energy shots which we were supposed to take before our races at the end of the season

·      If you cramped during a workout and stopped in the middle of the lane, he would often get a long stick and poke you until you resumed

·      The lifts we did were absurd. The very first workout every year was a set of 8x10 squats

Jesse Huff – Dubuque Senior Swimming (JV)

Jesse is a cool guy. Very sarcastic & cynical. When I asked him what we were doing for a particular practice, he would respond, “swimming.” As a coach, I felt like he didn’t push me hard enough – he’d frequently relax the interval or reduce the number of reps if we requested. But he also made practice bearable.

Jesse also had to sit in the locker room with us after every practice to make sure that we weren’t doing stupid shit to each other. In retrospect that must have been absolutely awful. I hope they paid him overtime. Actually, I have no idea if these high school coaching positions were paid at all or if they were volunteers.

John Hearn – Dubuque Senior Track

Hearn was intimidating. His coaching strategy was pretty simple:

·      Warm up

·      Stretch

·      Running form/block work/exchanges/whatever

·      Stretch again

·      Run fast (some combination of 600s, 400s, 300s, 200s, 100s on an interval)

·      Lift

In my 4 years as a sprinter with Hearn the strategy didn’t change. The practice plans were exactly the same for the each season. I can attest their effectiveness – in 4 years my 400 time dropped from 59 seconds to 53, and in the 400 hurdles I went from a high 62 to a low 58.  But I was never really satisfied with these times and wonder if I could have been better if we tried something new or different. We were never a particularly talented team and occasionally it seemed as if Hearn had accepted that and was just going through the motions.

Looking back, I believe that he was deeply invested in our development as young men, not just as athletes. All of his mantras revolved around the fact that improvement starts with hard work. There is no secret sauce & no easy path to success. “Nothing will ever be handed to you in this conference, men.”

Kevin Yngve – Bolt

My first impressions of Yngve were not strong. Bolt 2015 was a whirlwind for me as my thirst for ultimate quickly expanded and Kevin was exceptionally patient. I was not a confident player and I often turned to Yngve looking for feedback about whether I was making progress, doing the right things, making the right cuts, etc. Looking back on this now and having been on the receiving end of these types of early questions from rookies, Yngve did a great job quietly laying the groundwork for me as a player.

Side note: I think that B team coaches have a much harder job than A team coaches. The A team coach:

·      Is working with the top 21-26 guys who really want to be there

·      Can set significant practice attendance expectations without being overbearing

·      At tournaments, you will have most of your roster there & can have a well defined plan going into the weekend

·      Is usually expected to coach games/tournaments to get the best results (Performance over results baby)

On the other hand, the B team coach:

·      Is working with a wide variety of talent, ranging from guys who were in the last round of cuts from the A team to rookies who have not touched a disc until this evening. You have to figure out how to teach the new guys while keeping the more experienced players entertained.

·      Cannot or should not set a high bar for attendance. You walk a fine line between trying to get more guys to come to practice and seeming overbearing

·      At tournaments, a bunch of people who haven’t been coming to practice will come out of the weeds and show up without knowing any of the stuff you’ve been drilling for the last 4 weeks

·      At tournaments, you have to balance the development of your entire roster to keep everyone engaged, invested, and having fun while also trying to get results, because losing 7 games isn’t great either

·      Is responsible for the molding & development of young players and giving them their first impressions of the sport.

Very heavy stuff! B team coaches are dealt a very difficult hand & are often the least experienced coaches. Kevin did an excellent job balancing all of these concerns. His blog is also a great read & reveals a lot about the amount of careful thought that he puts into all his coaching decisions.

Kevin Bruns

Bruns is very insightful. During a season where I was struggling to find confidence on the field and within the team itself, Bruns got me thinking a lot about how I could maximize every minute that I was putting in, as well as challenging & expanding my ultimate perspective. The Movement is obviously a large inspiration for what I’m doing here.

Jeremy (I think) and I were talking about Bruns once and Jeremy said that he was a “players coach”. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. Jeremy: “He’s the kind of coach who the players really gel with. We were all just pretty good friends with him.”

Yiding Hou

Yiding taught me how to play good matchup defense downfield & developed my footwork. Yiding also represents my aspirations as a player. He is very good at Tetris.

Alex Champe

Champe is one of the most passionate guys I’ve ever met & a model for grit. His enthusiasm on the field is palpable and as a captain I attempted to recreate the intensity that he brought to NUT as a player.

As a coach, Champe shows a good amount of patience that I know he works hard to achieve. His composure at Centex, Regionals, and Nationals was impressive. He also called out Jay, Kyle and I for being babies when we were considering skipping Centex for Midwest Throwdown.

Kevin Yngve – NUT

Getting to know Kevin was one of my absolute favorite parts about being a captain. I loved learning the logic & reasoning behind his coaching decisions and getting to hash out the finer details. At this point I think it’s clear that I admire Kevin for many reasons:

·      He donates a great deal of time to the program. Between GIFs, practice planning, throwing feedback, meetings, tournaments, etc., Kevin is pouring his heart out for NUT.

·      He understands how to motivate players without being overbearing. Yngve has a well thought plan about how to raise expectations without disillusioning the roster.

·      He breeds excellent culture. Kevin makes a significant effort to get to know people on a personal level & others follow suit.

·      He is reserved but brings the energy when the situation calls for it. Kevin’s cool and calm presence on the sideline is quite welcome when your team finds itself in the game to go to Regionals. We also have good footage of Kevin freaking out.

·      He understands the impact that a captain’s or coach’s words and body language can have on the players around them.

I’m very fortunate to have had as many positive coaching as I’ve listed here. Coaches can make or break your experience, yet they are often taken for granted.

Regionals

2015

In 2015 I was on Bolt. The week before Regionals that year the team made a big emotional push via email. Each member of the roster sent an email talking about what the team meant to them, how much they believed they could win, etc. I read every single one and wanted to be a part of it.

The tournament was in Rockford, so we had a small round robin with Boomland and Notre Dame B. NUT came to watch us during our last game and I remember being quite nervous and wanting to impress them. Nobody looked happy, though I did not understand why until later. They had just lost their last pool play game to Michigan State and would now be facing Michigan in quarters.

On Sunday I watched a very fast, nerve racking game between NUT and MagnUM. I had not watched NUT play in a tournament before and it was intense. I honestly didn’t really understand the stakes at the time, but the tension was palpable. Every throw and catch put me on edge & the loss was crushing. I remembered my last races from high school.

2016

We faced Illinois in quarters. I did not play. I was ready to go for pretty much the entire first half and then realized that I wouldn’t be getting on the field. I don’t really remember much from this game, the only thing that stands out is KJ’s concussion. After the game was over Spielman had a moment with me and told me, “Next year – you’re on the field. And we aren’t going to lose.” I took this to heart over the summer.

2017

Saturday this year was the most wind I have ever played in. Every game was reduced to a huck to zone squabble. I think we might have scored in the upwind endzone once the entire day. GungHo played a 70 minute point a couple of fields over.

We played Purdue in quarters. I have relived this game and the heartbreak many times. It was an exciting game with many ups and downs. I think that we played well but did not reach our ceiling.

The waterworks really came out when this game ended. I remember sobbing into Jeremy’s shoulder and him being like, “Dude. We’ve got another game to play.” I was very sad to see this team go.

2018

We knew the region was wide open. Michigan was no powerhouse and we knew we had the ability to beat every team if we played well. We had just gotten a large dose of Humility at Sectionals two weeks prior. The weekend before the tournament, we shared some of Yiding’s thoughts on mentality with the team (although they were not attributed to Ding at the time, sorry!!). A couple of these really resonated with me:

·      It is within our team to finish at any placement at regionals, say 1st through 10th. Regionals is all about execution, and if we execute to our true ability level, we can win any game we play in.

·      We believe that the series is a celebration of the season and all the hard work we have put in.

For my own sanity, I had been beating down any & all dreams of winning the region since the beginning of winter quarter. I knew that I was going to have a difficult time parting with the team, so I did my best to mentally prepare for a loss on Sunday. Yiding’s second point above helped smooth everything out and frame my state of mind going into the weekend:

·      NUT 2018 was already a good team. We had had an excellent season and grown immensely from top to bottom.

·      Our Regionals finish would not affect the identity of the team which we had already established.

·      The opportunity to play one last tournament with the guys wasn’t something to be overlooked. I wanted to focus on staying in the moment & cherishing the weekend.

Regionals arrived and I was ready to rumble. I was ready for anything – I wanted desperately to win but knew that a loss would be OK. This was just another tournament. Saturday came and went. We played well and was happy to see everyone in good spirits heading into Sunday. I waited for the pre-Sunday nerves to hit me. To my surprise, they never came. I slept well & woke up the next morning feeling great.

In previous years, I had been racked with nervous energy, not only for myself but for my teammates. I had a lot of thoughts along the lines of, “We can only win if the offense is executing” and “Man, it’ll be a tough game if there’s more than 15mph winds”. The tension and the moment were overwhelming and I worried each time the disc left someone’s hands. This year was different. The tension was still there, but I knew we would rise to the occasion. I slacked with Yngve about this later.

Me: I was never worried. Excited for sure but UChicago and ND just felt like another two games. There was no weight.

Kevin: Perfect

Me: I want Natties to feel like that as well

Kevin: It will. It’s about trust and expecting to play well. I’m psyched it resonated with you this year

Afterwards, I talked with a lot of people and received a lot of congratulations. I boiled down most of my thoughts from various conversations & interviews into a couple of points:

·      We cashed in on our good fortune after years of misfortune. The tournament format favored us with an easy quarterfinals matchup, UChicago slayed Michigan, the weather was great, etc.

·      NUT has been ready to go to Nationals for a more than a couple years – 4, 5, 6, perhaps. Definitely before I got here. Last year’s team most likely would have qualified given this year’s conditions.

·      NUT 2018 was a very mentally sound team. We continued to play well and improve despite early season losses, a poor Sectionals performance, and other factors that may have derailed other teams. We trusted each other and always expected to play well.

NU Quarter by Quarter

Freshman Year

2014 Fall

·      EA1 – Really liked this class. Had prior experience with programming and linear algebra so I got a lot out of it

·      Math 230 – Differential Multivariable Calculus. Didn’t go to class because the professor was reading the textbook to us. Exams were pretty hard

·      DTC 1 – We had to make a hands-on training simulation for nurses to practice inserting PICCs into neonates. Our final prototype was jello with fake skin on top.

·      EECS 111 – Intro to Programming 1 (Racket). Not very hard. Sara Sood’s first time teaching at NU

·      Went to Glory Days with NUT and had a really good time. Jay was flying all over the place and I wanted to be like him. I was totally convinced that Ed was a god and when he went down with an ankle injury I was absolutely crushed

·      Kind of wanted to be in a frat. Went to Sigma Chi events until I stopped getting invited. Was pretty shy and timid at Sunday night dinners

2015 Winter

·      Econ 201 – Intro to Macroeconomics. This class sucked, should have dropped it. Didn’t learn anything

·      EECS 203 – Intro to Computer Engineering. Met and became friends with Yannick. Prof Wu would occasionally laugh at us when we asked questions in lecture. Good class, learned a lot

·      EECS 211 – Intro to Programming 2 (C++). Not very hard. Sara Sood’s second time teaching at NU

·      EA2 –  I hated this shit so much

·      Didn’t rush. Got FOMO real bad when people dropped their bids, I could hear the cheering from my room in CCI.

·      Bought into ultimate. The conditioning was easy compared to track/swimming in high school. Threw up a lot after parties

·      Bonded a lot with Kristen at Dance Marathon. We shared a lot of mutual energy and kept each other going in the hard parts

·      Bolt played at Chicago Invite Plan B with 8 guys. This is one of the only tournaments my parents have ever attended. They arrived on Saturday for our last game against BYU (A) at the precise moment when I cramped in my calves, hammies, and quads at the exact same time in both legs. We did not get bageled

2015 Spring

·      History 275-2 – History of Western Science and Medicine. In retrospect this is one of the coolest classes I’ve taken. Very interesting lens for history, lectures were pretty good.

·      EECS 214 – Data Structures and Algorithms. Very fun. Ian’s a great prof. I still use this stuff every day

·      EA3 – I did not learn very much in this class. We enjoyed antagonizing the professor. Kristen and Andrew bailed me out on a lot of the assignments

·      DTC 2 – Our project was to design a fucking oil rail car that would mitigate explosions in the case of shear puncture. The majority of our time was spent trying to understand graduate level material science

·      Started going out with Kristen. It was one of her first relationships and things were weird starting out, we weren’t always on the same page

·      Developmental sectionals with Bolt was so fun. We played really well

·      Became social chair in CCI and did absolutely nothing

2015 Summer

·      Worked at Philmont. Had to arrive late so my position was TBD. Ended up being a Program Counselor at French Henry. This summer was incredible & very humbling. A kid died one night in a flash flood and I listened to the entire thing on the radio.

·      Kristen was in Spain and I didn’t have any cell service or Wi-Fi most of the time, so we emailed each other when we had the chance. I thought about her a lot

Sophomore Year

2015 Fall

·      EECS 212 – Mathematical Foundations for CS. This was a hard class. I enjoyed writing the proofs but struggled in exam settings. Got to grind it out with Julia which was fun

·      IEMS 201 – Intro to Statistics. Dumb, stupid class. Andrew and I did all the work for the video labs

·      Physics 135-2 – Electricity and Magnetism. Awful. I’m not good at physics and the labs were excruciating

·      EECS 213 – Intro to Systems. One of the best classes for CS majors at NU. Very well organized, and jam packed with stuff that’s important to know as a software dev. This was the first time I felt like I understood how computers actually work

·      I really wanted to make the A team and I stressed about it daily. I asked Julia every 212 lecture if Spielman had said anything about me. Huge relief when the roster came out

·      Things started to heat up with Kristen. We started saying the L word

2016 Winter

·      Physics 135-3 – Waves and Relativity. Equally as awful as 135-2. David Taylor is truly a soulless man. Labs were slightly less excruciating

·      EECS 202 – Intro to Electrical Engineering. I didn’t learn much in this class, but it was bearable

·      EECS 205 – Assembly Language Programming. So fun, Russ is an OG. Ripped off the Kanye Zone game for my final project

·      Warm Up with NUT was awful. We played so poorly and morale was very low. I wasn’t playing much so usually I tried to contribute with my voice/energy on the sideline. I felt like I was helplessly screaming into a void. This was one of the only times I haven’t enjoyed myself while playing ultimate

·      First time dropping to 3 classes. A great way to do winter quarter

·      Fucked up pretty bad at formal. I left Kristen with a bunch of strangers which really upset her. This was the beginning of the end for us

·      Planning CCI Formal was very stressful. Could have been better if I had delegated work better instead of doing everything myself. Developed a strong hatred for SOFO. I think people enjoyed the event though.

2016 Spring

·      EECS 336 – Design & Analysis of Algorithms. The most difficult & time intensive class I have taken at NU. Me and Wyatt really bonded this quarter. We spent 15-20 hours working every week. The TA Madhav Suresh was quite good & really made the effort worthwhile. I started drinking coffee because my proofs were better when I was caffeinated & haven’t looked back since

·      EECS 348 – Intro to Artificial Intelligence. Way too easy. Didn’t learn much because most of the assignments were already done for us

·      EECS 349 – Intro to Machine Learning. Poorly organized, Prof. Downey is possibly the dullest person on the planet. Fell asleep a lot in lecture

·      Soc 110 – Intro to Sociology. Fun, easy class. Lots of freshmen. Me and Patrick took it together

·      Kristen and I broke up, it was entirely my fault. I was very upset for a good amount of time

·      NUT tournaments: Bama Secs Beach Party, Huck Finn. We never played very well and our culture was not great. I didn’t feel like I was getting better or contributing to the team much. EDIT: I should clarify that I loved this team & everyone on it. I wasn't satisfied with my role on the team at the time & thought we had the potential to perform at a level greater than what I was seeing.

·      Uncle Joe got me an IT job at Hagerty. I’m blessed to have people/opportunities like this in my life

2016 Summer

·      Worked at Hagerty in their IT software development office. They were horribly understaffed and had way more on their hands than they could handle. About 5 people out of 30 knew what was going on and the rest were clueless. This is when I started to realize that very few people in CS really know anything and anyone who seems knowledgeable was once incompetent

·      Played summer league in Traverse City and threw most days. Lifted a lot as well. I was in very good shape

·      I was very lonely this summer. I was shy and didn’t make friends with the other interns until mid-August. Spent a lot of time by myself and got comfortable just doing things alone.

Junior Year

2016 Fall

·      EECS 335 – Theory of Computation. After taking Algo this class was fun & not very difficult. Prof. De is a great professor – if you ask a question he will stop his lecture and make very sure that you understand the material before moving on

·      EECS 325 – Artificial Intelligence Programming. The lectures had nothing to do with the assignments. I got pretty deep into Lisp programming and obsessed over receiving positive feedback from Prof. Riesbeck.

·      GEN_CMN 102 – Public Speaking. I do not enjoy giving speeches, so this class was good for me I suppose.

·      EECS 395 – Game Development Studio part 1. This class was interesting, but I didn’t get much out of it. It mostly amounted to a drawn out tutorial for Unity

·      Moved in with Patrick, Jay, and Devon at 1008 Garnett. I really like this apartment and my roommates, it’s been a defining feature of junior & senior year

·      I was pretty concerned with getting an internship and was upset when I didn’t hear back from most places. I wasn’t really sure what I needed to do in order to set myself apart. Wyatt was really helpful with interview prep and boosting my confidence

2017 Winter

·      EECS 352 – Machine Perception of Music & Audio. This class sat perfectly at the intersection of music and computer science. Every lecture was cool as shit and Prof. Pardo is quite funny. I regret not getting to know him in a greater capacity. Julia seems to have really enjoyed it

·      EECS 330 – Human Computer Interaction. Stupid, dumb, silly. Working with CSS gives me migraines. Not a complete waste of time but holy cow did I get frustrated working on this stuff

·      EECS 395 – Game Development Studio part 2. Super fun, very engaging. Prof. Zubek had a strange obsession with pooping in The Sims. Wyatt, Scott and I worked together on a puzzle game, it turned out alright. I think that it lacked a little inspiration and was definitely still rough around the edges at the end. But it was a lot of fun to make

·      I went through Amazon’s recruitment process late January/early February. I had sent in a cold application though their portal in October so I was pleasantly surprised to hear back from them. I figured I’d just fail the first round. Once I got a phone interview I started getting really excited and nervous. I knew that Scott had gone through the same process weeks before and gotten an offer, so I was hopeful that my outcome was the same. Wyatt was such a good friend though this whole process

·      NUT balled out at Warm Up. After we beat A&M for 3^rd I looked at Kyle and was like “we made it dude.” I thought we were gonna earn a bid. Things did not go as planned obviously, still loved these tournaments though

2017 Spring

·      EECS 339 – Intro to Databases. Pretty dry, but useful I suppose. Lena, Morgan, Julia and I have a running theory that Prof. Duggan is in fact a robot which is controlled by the dog, Teddy. The dog is sentient and highly intelligent but struggles to relate to humans, so he has created Jennie (Duggan) to be his mouthpiece. This is why she writes in a scrawl which is barely readable in locations which are close to her waist. Also explains why she speaks in a monotone and struggles to understand human emotion

·      EECS 395 – Computational Learning Theory. Samir and I took this class because we like Prof De, who assured us that even though we didn’t have much of a mathematical background compared to the rest of the class, we would be OK. He was wrong

·      Pysch 314 – Intro to Buddhist Psychology. A bunch of us took this together, notably Patrick who complained about it nonstop. I quite enjoyed it

·      Spring break was a ball this year, so many friends

·      NUT postseason: We won sectionals easily & then got 5^th at Regionals, injuries hurt us a lot. This team was so much fun & I think there was a lot of anxiety going into 2017-2018 that NUT wouldn’t be fun/good/whatever next year with all the seniors leaving. I tried to explicitly respond to this feeling when I ran for captain

2017 Summer

·      Seattle summers are dope! Usually kinda rainy in the morning and then beautiful, sunny, afternoons and long evenings spent playing ultimate

·      I generally tried to avoid telling people that I was an Amazon intern. We drove up everyone’s rent, clogged the bus lines, and all had the same stupid black backpacks.

·      This was such a contrast to working at Hagerty. My team was knowledgeable, helpful, and kind (usually). The code base made sense & my project was dope. I felt energized at work and rarely useless. This was a great internship and I think I am one of the luckiest people in the world

·      Low level club ultimate is a very strange experience and not super fun. David and Roy kept me sane. I hope to make a better roster when I return in the future. Roy will be there to grind with me in the offseason

Senior Year

2017 Fall

·      Chinese 111 – Intro to Mandarin. I took this Pass/Fail which was a mistake. Somehow I passed after handing in a mostly blank final exam. (It is near impossible to make up Chinese characters)

·      EECS 343 – Operating Systems. My only 8AM in 4 years of college and it was exactly what I expected. I was sincerely interested in the course material but for the life of me I could not stay awake for the full hour and 20 minutes. I like to imagine I would have done much better if the lecture were at 10

·      EECS 394 – Agile Software Development. This would have been a much better class if I was a younger & less jaded student. EC2 Spot Fleet used agile workflow without all the bullshit, so this class did not expose me to anything new or eye opening

·      NUT fall was a blur. There is a lot going on & I have a tendency to over-manage. Yngve is a captain’s dream come true

2018 Winter

·      EECS 397 – Intro to Digital Forensics. My senioritis really got me in this one. Theo & friends carried/saved me on the final project

·      EECS 340 – Intro to Networking. Pretty hard, somewhat fulfilling. I sort of understand how the internet works now.

·      MechE 333 – I don’t even know what the official title of this class is but it’s dope. 10/10 would recommend to any CS person looking to get down and dirty with some hands-on PID control projects

·      After going 0-6 against good teams at MLC, NUT goes 1-5 against mostly good teams at Queen City. We had just committed to the toughest schedule in NUT history and I mentally prepared myself to endure a season of L’s. It would be worth it for the development of the young roster. Like Yngve says, we don’t care about results. I hate losing though

·      Then Warm Up. What a tournament. I am re-energized and ready to take on the rest of the season, no matter the ending.

·      I lost a lot of sleep while planning spring break. The entire trip on the whole was less fun than previous years. Being in charge sucks sometimes

2018 Spring

·      No classes. Walking dogs for cash. Jay and I have stacked an IM ultimate squad and we are going to win the championship. Life is good.

·      NUT IS GOING TO NATIONALS

·      I CANNOT WAIT FOR OVY