More Than Wins: The Legacy of a Transformational AD
What does it really mean to win in athletics?
For 25 years, today’s guest served as an athletic director, leading coaches, building programs, and impacting countless athletes across basketball, baseball, and football. But her greatest legacy isn’t found in championships, records, or trophies it’s found in people.
In this powerful conversation, we go beyond the scoreboard to explore what transformational leadership truly looks like. From the early days of defining success by performance… to a deeper shift rooted in beloved identity… this episode reveals how leadership changes when you stop leading to prove something—and start leading from who you already are.
If you’re a coach, athletic director, or leader who wants to build something that lasts, this conversation will challenge and encourage you.
If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

What if you didn’t have to prove anything this season?

What if you coached from a place of being already accepted?

That changes:

• your tone
• your patience
• your leadership

You don’t coach for approval. You coach from identity. And when that shifts…Everything else starts to follow.

This is where coaching starts to change.Because when your identity is secure…You stop using the game to build yourself. And you start allowing God to send you through it.Not just as a coach.But as someone being used to shape lives.

If this is where you’re at right now…

If you’ve felt the pressure, the weight, the need to prove…

You were never meant to find your identity in the game. You were meant to bring your identity into it. You are beloved. And from that place…you lead!

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

What if the game is doing more than just developing players?
In this episode of Redeeming the Game, I sit down with two of my former players to reflect on their journey—from who they were when I first met them to who they are becoming today.
We talk about when basketball became more than just competition, the challenges and growth they experienced along the way, and how God used the game to shape their identity, discipline, and faith.
This is an honest conversation about transformation how the game can expose, refine, and ultimately point us toward something deeper.
For coaches, trainers, and players alike, this episode is a reminder: Basketball is a tool.
And in the right hands, it can be used for far more than performance.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

The lies we believed about coaching.

Today’s episode is a little different.
I’m sitting down with two guys who not only train at a high level…
but have also been completely transformed in how they see coaching, identity, and the game itself.

And today we’re talking about this:
What’s the lie we believed about coaching… and what happens when that gets exposed?
The game was never meant to define you.
And the moment that lie starts to break…
everything about how you coach begins to change.

This is what it looks like to start redeeming the game.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.
I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”
No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.
If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.
👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

Most players don’t need more drills.

They need something deeper. We default to skill development.
Shooting reps. Ball handling. Conditioning.
But we often neglect the foundation underneath it all.
And when players struggle, it’s rarely because they don’t know enough.
Every player needs three things:
1. Stability
📖 Hebrews 13:8
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Players thrive when their coach is steady.
If your mood rises and falls with the scoreboard, your team feels unsafe.
Beloved coaches are anchored.
2. Truth 📖 Ephesians 4:15 “Speaking the truth in love.”
Truth without love humiliates. Love without truth weakens.
Growth happens where honesty and care coexist.
3. Belief Jesus called fishermen “fishers of men.”
He saw beyond current performance.
Beloved identity means you see players not just as they are but as they’re becoming.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

Somewhere along the way, many coaches learned to carry everything quietly.
The pressure. The expectations.The weight of leadership.
But carrying it alone was never part of the calling.
Coaching trains you to be strong for others.
But strength, when isolated, eventually becomes heavy.
Beloved identity reminds us
that we are sons and daughters before we are leaders.
And beloved sons and daughters were never designed to walk alone.
I’ve learned that isolation doesn’t mean absence of people it means absence of shared formation.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.
I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”
No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.
If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

As a coach, you’re expected to be strong. Confident. Certain.
There aren’t many places where uncertainty feels safe.
Over time, isolation doesn’t come from distance —
it comes from carrying things alone.
Loneliness isn’t a leadership failure.
It’s a signal —a reminder that formation happens in community.
Secure leaders don’t hide their humanity. They steward it.
Beloved identity reminds us that we were never designed to lead in isolation.
Strength is not independence.
Strength is knowing where you can be honest.
If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.
I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”
No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.
If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things