Kate Smith | Finding Success in College Athletics

What's behind enduring success at the highest level of college athletics? Kate Smith, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Michigan, shares insights from nearly 14 years of experience coaching multiple sports in a competitive collegiate environment. Smith emphasizes sustained excellence through adaptability, genuine curiosity, and openness to opportunities — even outside of athletics. Drawing on her private-sector experiences, she explains how diverse roles helped shape her flexible, athlete-centered philosophy. Smith candidly addresses current collegiate challenges, including navigating Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) distractions and adjusting motivational strategies across team cultures and generations. As a Certified Performance and Sport Scientist® (CPSS®), Smith highlights how integrating data-driven insights helps her create a more effective training environment. This expertise uniquely positions her to bridge athletics with academics, deepening collaboration on campus-wide performance initiatives. Learn how to implement practical strategies for keeping athletes engaged amidst external pressures, leverage performance data meaningfully, and continually refresh your coaching approach.

Connect with Kate via email at kannehay@umich.edu and on Instagram: @katehaycock | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs  

“Social media, as well, presents its own challenge with the mental health aspect, where if they post something as part of an NIL deal, but then have comments that are bullying comments or derogatory comments, what have you, making sure that they understand that this is-- it doesn't speak to who they are as people.” 15:00
“I don't know how many times I've had athletes come up to me now and ask, hey, I saw this exercise on TikTok. Can we do this in our lift? Well, like, how do we get them to understand this might be a great exercise, but in a different context? When we're training for a specific sport and we're in a certain time of the year within our annual plan, this might not be the best exercise. So how do we get them to buy into what we've planned out with the amount of information that they have in their hands?” 20:50
“I like to say, always leave the door open. If there's something that sparks your interest, it's sparked it for a reason. So pursue it. Look into it. Don't close the door on it because it might not be directly related to strength and conditioning.” 33:20

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:00:02.60] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast season 9, episode 9.

[00:00:07.91] I like to say always leave the door open. If there's something that sparks your interest, it's sparked it for a reason. So pursue it. Look into it. Don't close the door on it because it might not be directly related to strength and conditioning, but leave those doors open. And if something's intriguing, it's worth looking further into.

[00:00:27.36] And if you get to a point and you decide, nope, this isn't for me, you know that you pursued it, and the question won't be there. And if it does work out, great. You've opened another avenue in your career and grown as a professional. And even along the way, if it doesn't work out more often than not, you're going to make some good connections. You'll learn something new that could be used.

[00:00:47.95] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:00:50.63] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know but probably didn't learn in school. There's strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.

[00:01:01.18] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon, NSCA's coaching and sports science program manager. College athletics is a huge part of the profession. And we're going on tour. We're connecting with different coaches around the field.

[00:01:16.48] Today, we have Kate Smith with us, head strength and conditioning coach at Michigan. She's been at Michigan for most of her career. It's pretty cool to find a coach that has really made a career at one institution, especially a school as big as Michigan. So excited to have you on, Kate. Thanks for being here.

[00:01:35.62] Thanks for having me on, Eric. Appreciate it.

[00:01:38.11] Yeah, I got to know you a little bit at coaches conference when you presented. You came up with the NSCA, CSCS. You're a CPSS. You have your sports science credentials. So we can get into some of those topics. Tell us what sports you work with.

[00:01:54.46] Right now, I'm working with women's soccer, men's tennis, and field hockey here at Michigan.

[00:01:59.17] So when you got hired as a GA back in 2011, have you worked with a variety of different sports, and has that changed over time?

[00:02:10.12] Absolutely, yeah. I started off with men's swimming as a GA. That was my official assignment. And I assisted across a variety of sports. That was also the first year that men's lacrosse was a varsity sport at Michigan. So I assisted with men's lacrosse, baseball, wrestling quite a bit with Mike, and women's tennis at that time, as well. So among other things, was kind of a bit of a utility player and had men's swimming.

[00:02:38.81] And then the following year, the swim programs combined. And so I took over men's and women's swimming and diving and then assisted heavily with women's soccer. When I got hired on full time, I took women's soccer officially and had swimming and diving and women's soccer until 2017.

[00:02:59.27] And then I also picked up field hockey. And in 2018, we transitioned. That's when the South Campus performance complex opened up. And instead of commuting up to six times a day back and forth between our different facilities, I kept women's soccer and field hockey, and we moved coaches around, and one of our other coaches took over swimming and diving.

[00:03:24.44] And then infamous COVID hit, and we lost some of our staff members, unfortunately. And I helped to go-- and took over track and field and cross country with Ashley Jackson, who was here at the time. So we tag teamed that. And then when she left and went down to Texas A&M, I took over all of track and field and cross country, and I still had soccer and field hockey, so it was quite the load for a couple of years.

[00:03:54.11] And then, recently, this past spring, we hired one of our fellows on to take over track and field and cross country full time. And then I took over men's tennis this mid-summer. So, yeah, full circle--

[00:04:10.44] Yeah, I like that.

[00:04:10.92] --and quite a few teams.

[00:04:12.39] Yeah, utility player. That's a good approach to have as a strength and conditioning coach, where you can serve a lot of roles within the department. It sounds like you have a pretty big staff there.

[00:04:23.91] We do. We do. We have a good sized staff. So we have, right now, 11 full-time staff members and then two fellows. So they're one-year appointments. And then they're option to renew, as well. And so we do. We're fortunate in that we have a big staff.

[00:04:42.70] Most coaches on staff all have three sports. There's a couple that have two. And then track and field and cross country is really a massive one. So while it's one entity, it's a lot of human bodies. So quite a few there.

[00:04:57.67] When you applied to be a GA at Michigan, did you think you'd be there as long as you have been? What was your path to get there?

[00:05:08.08] No, I definitely didn't think I'd be here this long. I'm grateful that I have been. But, yeah, it was an interesting path. I started off and going into college, I was an athlete. And growing up, my plan was to be an engineer. And so I was looking at different degrees, different schools that I'd be able to play tennis at. My backup school was Michigan Tech, which is a heavily engineering dominant program. And so when I was looking there, they had actually just introduced an Exercise Science program, and I was intrigued by that, so started looking at that, looked at schools that had those programs.

[00:05:48.16] My top school for playing tennis was Syracuse. That's where I really wanted to be. I had been chatting with the coach for quite a while and liked what they wanted to do and where the program was heading, and so I-- they had a pretty well defined Exercise Science program. And so I started to pursue that. And then during my junior and senior years, I got an internship with what's EXOS now, was Athletes' Performance at the time, and then from there was connected with my summer internship for the following year down in Florida with Pat Etcheberry, who traveled with tennis players on tour. And that was the ultimate goal for a while.

[00:06:29.73] And so I interned at both those spots. And then, yeah, cold called Mike Favre at the time and said, I would like to get my master's. I see you have GA positions. Will you have one open? And I had no idea that there was an actual posting board and all that for GA positions. I just saw that they had one. And being from the state of Michigan, I thought, even if I couldn't get a secured GA position, then it would be better to have in-state tuition at a dominant university. So, yeah, that's how I ended up here. And then, yeah, I certainly didn't think that I would be here as long as I have. It's coming up on 14 years.

[00:07:08.52] That's huge, being able to make home and make home where home was. I mean, we can't all do that in this profession. But one thing that-- you did go out. You found an opportunity at EXOS. You worked with pro tennis players. What do you feel like those experiences helped you with coming back and now being at an institution as long as you have?

[00:07:34.26] Yeah, the position at EXOS, the internship out there, was critical in developing a foundation of coaching for me. They have an extremely well thought out process for educating their interns, and part of it is because they're-- at least when I was there, this is how it functioned. But the interns play a large role in the day to day operations, and with having such a large entity, they're able to get a good number each semester, which is nice.

[00:08:09.98] So I was in the summer internship program. They placed me out at their facility in Carson, which is at the same-- I think it's called the-- I think it's the StubHub center now, and-- it was the Home Depot center at the time. But it's where the LA Galaxy play. USA Soccer, at the time, had a base out of there. But USTA West was based out of there. So they said it'd be neat. You might be able to make some connections.

[00:08:33.71] And then, at the time, they also hosted a professional tennis tournament out there. So it worked out really well. But it was truly the place where I got a foundation for coaching, from structuring programming to working with individuals. You start off in-- I mean, being from the state of Michigan at the time, we had-- they split the summer where half of it is with one coach and the other half is underneath another coach, and they serve as your main mentors for the summer.

[00:09:05.64] And on the second half, I was with Jenny Noiles, who's still with EXOS, and she was an incredible mentor. But we had an NHL vet group in the morning-- and being from Michigan and growing up watching the Red Wings. Dan Cleary was there. And so it's like first coaching opportunity, really working with these extremely high level professional athletes, just managing that from a standpoint of being professional, being knowledgeable, understanding what you're implementing, and doing so in a well received and efficient manner, that was really crucial.

[00:09:46.48] And then when I went to Etcheberry down in Florida, it was a much smaller operation, but it was exactly what I wanted to be doing and going with players on tours. So good experience there. And they worked with other athletes besides tennis players. But seeing how the smaller section of the private sector works versus a large global entity, both of those were really beneficial.

[00:10:12.01] And during my senior year at Syracuse, I was able to work as an undergrad assistant in our weight room there. And a lot of that I attribute to the knowledge I gained with the EXOS internship. And so I worked with a variety of athletes out there and assisted Veronica with all of the teams that she had. And it was really an integral opportunity to have to experience the collegiate setting, one, as a student athlete at the time and seeing that, but then also seeing it from the coaching side, and then also to have those other two private sector experiences on either end of the spectrum.

[00:10:51.23] You don't always see that coaches working in a setting, but having uniquely different experiences during their internship times, and that's actually going to be one of the requirements going forward with CASCE accreditation. A lot of coaches know that that's coming in 2030. To get your CSCS, you'll be required to do a certain number of internships through your undergraduate time, and they have to be in a minimum of two different settings in the field.

[00:11:22.71] So I heard that, and it just jumped out to me. I was like, oh, you had that different background, working with professional athletes, working in the private sector, and now you've been at the college level as long as you have. What is it about college that you like so much?

[00:11:40.61] It's-- and people say it all the time, and it's a little bit cliche, but I think cliches become them for a reason. It's such a unique field to be in. And when I was working at EXOS, we would have athletes from one week to three months. That was the length of the internship. And so seeing the difference of the opportunity to get to know an athlete over three months versus that one week, coming to the college sector, it was extremely intriguing to work with an athlete for four years or maybe more.

[00:12:12.43] We've had-- in working with swimming and diving, I have also had the opportunity to work with some of those athletes post-college as they've pursued their dreams of competing in the Olympics. And so with that, having an athlete over the span of their collegiate career and watching them grow from freshmen coming in at 18 years old, 19 years old, some of them 17, so seeing where they're at as a freshman and watching that development in such critical years, both on the field and within their sport, but then also as humans, so that's been extremely intriguing for me over the years and watching those athletes develop professionally, as well.

[00:12:53.69] So it's a very unique sector. And it's truly a lifestyle, which, again, I know it's cliche to say that, but I think that's why so many collegiate athletes go into some realm of the collegiate athletic side post-graduation. But, yeah, it's been quite an adventure, and I've really enjoyed it.

[00:13:17.77] That's a great point that probably most coaches have a stop in college athletics at some point, whether it's through their own athletic experience, early coaching experiences, often as GAs or interns. There's a lot of opportunity in the college area to get your feet wet with coaching, now, on the other side where the field is at right now, there's a lot going on in college athletics, especially at the level that Michigan plays at. What have you seen from NIL to the transfer portal? Has this been challenging for you?

[00:13:54.59] It's always present now from-- I wouldn't say it's been a challenge quite yet. The challenges come in with continuing to develop a drive and a passion for the sport within our student athletes. There's so much that can be done with the NIL side now and the opportunity for them to earn money, which I don't think is inherently a bad thing, but we-- making sure that their focus is still on getting their education and fulfilling that lifelong accomplishment, but then also continuing to excel in their sport and working through the training and being dedicated in that way.

[00:14:38.89] So the NIL challenge comes with, how do we continue to foster what they came here for while managing opportunities that could and are beneficial to them, particularly from a financial standpoint, post-graduation, especially if they're not on a full ride right now? That's where the challenges come in, I think. Social media, as well, presents its own challenge with the mental health aspect, where if they post something as part of an NIL deal, but then have comments that are bullying comments or derogatory comments, what have you, making sure that they understand that this is-- it doesn't speak to who they are as people. It's more the individuals who have posted these things and that their goal and their mission in coming here to Michigan to get a degree and to compete for the Block M. Doesn't change based on how many likes they have on a post.

[00:15:51.88] I liked what you said about getting them to focus on what they came there to do initially. And makes me wonder, do you think the motivational aspects of coaching has changed at all? We've all seen those rah-rah strength and conditioning coaches get the team amped up. Some of us are like that, and some of us aren't. Do you feel like there's a different layer of motivation that happens now on the coaching side? What are your thoughts on that?

[00:16:25.48] No, that's a great question. I think, because I've had an opportunity to work with so many different athletes and so many different sports, I've recognized that there's cultures within each sport and then motivation styles are different. So when I approach coaching, the motivation has been more directed toward what's the culture of a specific team versus what's happening with NIL. And I imagine that may change, too, as it becomes more of a prevalent aspect in the life of a student athlete and within our lives as coaches.

[00:17:05.71] But from a motivation side, I would say it's more that culture of the sport, but then a little bit more generational, too, what athletes relate to. I was asked the other day to put some oldies on, and so I had to ask the athlete to define what oldies meant. And she said mid-2000s. And it's like, mmm, OK, we can put that on.

[00:17:30.64] So it's a little bit more generational and then also within that culture of a team as far as the motivation we provide as coaches. Some of those teams, yeah, rah rah is good. And I would say, on a Monday morning, 7:00 AM conditioning session, sometimes that's warranted and needed. And then some days it's a, all right, Kate, we need you to bring it down a little bit. We're all still waking up.

[00:17:57.07] So it's also reading the room and really understanding where the athletes are at and what they need in order to accomplish the defined task for the day. So will NIL and the changes within the landscape of college athletics moving forward influence that and impact it? I think so. I haven't seen drastic changes as of now.

[00:18:23.01] I like that you highlighted culture differences from team to team. I don't always hear that. I think maybe it's assumed, and maybe that comes from your background of working with so many sports. You just recognize that and are able to read the room and know what your role needs to be in that setting. On the coaching side, what do you feel the biggest challenges are right now for collegiate coaches? What are some of the challenges that you're facing?

[00:18:53.41] Again, great question. Challenges, I would say, from the side of how the landscape itself is changing-- and in certain respects, we've got the Wild West right now for certain areas. Being able to hone in each day on, What is my task for the day? What needs to be accomplished? What athletes do I need to work with? And what is our goal in these sessions for the day? and not get lost in what could happen in the next month, in the next several months, in the next year, but focusing in on this is the task at hand. This is where we are moving towards. So what are the action steps for today to get us closer to that goal?

[00:19:44.39] So that's one of the challenges. And then I would say one of the other challenges, as well, is there's so much information available at the fingertips of our student athletes. So how do we get them to buy into what we as professionals have developed and planned out with them? And when I say we, that's strength and conditioning. That's our sport coaches. That's our athletic trainers, our performance counselors, our performance dieticians.

[00:20:13.17] So all of our support staff and coaches around the student athletes, how do we get them to buy into what we have worked together to develop as a theoretical successful training program for them to achieve the goals of a program? And at any institution, it's going to be to win championships.

[00:20:38.26] And with all that information that they have available to them, getting them to be able to filter out and understand-- I don't know how many times I've had athletes come up to me now and ask, hey, I saw this exercise on TikTok. Can we do this in our lift? Well, like, how do we get them to understand this might be a great exercise, but in a different context? When we're training for a specific sport and we're in a certain time of the year within our annual plan, this might not be the best exercise. So how do we get them to buy into what we've planned out with the amount of information that they have in their hands?

[00:21:23.16] One thing I think about related to that is just the number of resources athletes have now. And you touched on that with the different departments you have to work with. Probably in 2011, you didn't have as much access to dieticians as you have today. You had athletic trainers, but you have schools that have sports psychology and other areas that get focused on. How has that changed, as a strength and conditioning coach, working with more stakeholders in the locker room or in the weight room?

[00:21:59.80] Yeah. We have quite a few resources available here for the student athletes, and it's excellent that we do have the ability to provide those. It only helps our student athletes be better, whether they take advantage of them or not. But I remember being grateful because I was in an Exercise Science program that I had access to some sports psychology courses that I could take that, in our lab, we were doing BOD POD. Yeah, I'll be a volunteer. I'd love to see what this information is.

[00:22:31.15] So the fact that we can do that with our athletes here and have DEXA scans and have a dietician who can help them figure out what they need to perform at their best level, yeah, that's certainly a huge plus. And then as far as all of us managing and working together, I think, here at Michigan, I think-- I know we all manage that very well, and it's some of the best communication. And I know this is really the main job that I've had.

[00:23:03.85] But even in working with different individuals as they've come through these positions, the constant point that has been there is solid communication amongst all the entities in what we call our student athlete health and welfare programs. And we all work together extremely well. And I think that speaks to how hires are made and the people that are brought in here, because our common goals are all the same. We want to help our student athletes be the best that they can be on and off the field.

[00:23:45.75] And so with that, yeah, it's certainly changed, even in the years that I've been here. So started off with the infamous fruit, nut, and bagel rule from the NCAA, to we provide full meals. There's stocked fueling stations for our student athletes at almost every facility, to, yeah, having the ability to work with performance counselors, whether it's performance-related anxiety or larger, deeper rooted discussions, to the resources we have with athletic medicine.

[00:24:26.17] It was great. With the California schools joining and the West Coast schools joining in with the Big Ten, we have more flights that are cross country. So from a recovery standpoint, the ability to have fireflies and work on recovery while we're flying to, on the academic side of things, the resources to have somebody from academics travel on those trips to administer tests and exams, all of that has grown tremendously in the time that I've been here. And we're very fortunate to have the resources to be able to provide those things.

[00:25:05.17] So, yeah, it's been a good progression. And part of-- going back to your previous question on some of the challenges as coaches, how do we stress and emphasize to our student athletes that they are fortunate? And we work with a very solid group of student athletes here at Michigan. I will speak very highly of them. But how do we keep them grounded amidst all of the resources that they do have at their fingertips?

[00:25:33.80] Yeah, that is an important point. We definitely think big in terms of what our role is in these athletes' lives. And it's important to know where they're at. I mean, you've already mentioned TikTok and what oldies are for music. I have kids, and it's pretty crazy that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are oldies now.

[00:25:58.89] But we have a lot of fun in this profession. It sounds like you have a great overarching philosophy of how your performance team comes together within your department. You went on, you got your CPSS. What led you to get that new certification? And how does that benefit you in your role?

[00:26:20.28] So here we utilize Catapult. And I had worked with teams-- or I do work with teams that have used it since 2017. And so taking on a larger role with that and wanting to have a greater understanding of it as well as-- we have these resources and we're collecting data. How do we utilize them for impactful change in performance? And so that's part of what drove me to get the CPSS.

[00:26:50.22] And as a professional, I'm always looking to grow and learn and add to the toolbox. And so this was another way to do that, to refresh some of my statistics skills, as well. But how do we take this data that we're collecting from our student athletes and truly break it down, utilize it, help to create a more efficient and a more effective training environment for them? If we're going to collect it, we might as well use it.

[00:27:24.34] Yeah, I like that. There was a time that sports science was printing out the body weights and the testing sheets and throwing them on the coaches table, and not much conversation came from that. Now, we're definitely in a data-driven period of time, even just within the weight room. It goes on to practice planning and strength coaches have found some really helpful roles with their teams by being able to go deeper into workload management just beyond the reps and sets.

[00:27:58.00] This is empowering for us as a profession. And it's really cool to see big schools like Michigan leading the way in this, having credentialed members of their staff really taking on that dual role in a way. Is sports science a big initiative at Michigan? Do you guys have a dedicated department for that? How has that progressed?

[00:28:22.10] Yeah, so we work in conjunction right now with our School of Kinesiology, Orthopedic Medicine, and the Athletic Department with what's called HPSSC, so the Human Performance and Sports Science Collective. There is a drive to establish in-house sports science work. As of right now, we have some other entities that are essentially utilizing the resources for that. Part of that is some of these elements that have come down and rulings that have come down from the pay to play and the changing landscape of college athletics.

[00:29:09.17] With that being said, we're very fortunate to have this partnership. In our main training facility, we've built out a lab to start doing some performance assessments. We've been to utilize labs on campus, but to have one in house will be helpful. And then through HPSSC, we're partnering with them. So we have students from Kinesiology. We have students from our School of Information to help with data analytics. And really working to partner with campus.

[00:29:44.05] So we've got a good collaboration between individuals who are very well equipped to want to work with athletics, who are eager to work with athletics from up on campus, and then our Athletic Department. And so this partnership and how it grows, I'm excited to see where we take it. But, yes, we just opened the lab, and we just hired our athlete innovation coordinator here. And then we're working on hiring a few others and then integrating our students and providing education and curriculum outside of the classroom and in applied setting for them. But then also it helps us to manage the data to do the collection.

[00:30:27.11] Catapult, specifically, can be a full-time job in and of itself. And so while I love and have thoroughly enjoyed working with both soccer and field hockey on their Catapult programs and implementation, I, unfortunately, can't be at every practice for both teams reporting live. So when we find and identify students that are interested in doing that and would like to work into sports science and sport analytics, that's where we've been able to really develop that partnership and get experience for them and provide an opportunity for them to learn and further delve into it, while also filling a need that we have with our team. So that's been a great initiative that's been going and is continuing to grow here at Michigan.

[00:31:17.82] Yeah, it sounds like you're not just building a foundation for some of those students, but you're building a foundation for your department as a whole where you have great integration with the academic departments on campus. And you don't always see that. Sometimes athletics and academics are completely detached, and it's good to think that they can intermingle and connect. And there's probably something positive that will come from that. Tons of resources on the academic side that we don't always utilize within athletics.

[00:31:49.00] So it's interesting to hear how different departments are delivering sports science. There's no right way versus wrong way to do it. And we're seeing a lot of different models out there. So I'm really glad you shared that. It's cool to see, now that CPSS has been in the field for a few years, where different professionals are or what they're doing. Are they working in strength and conditioning roles? Have they transitioned into more dedicated sports science exclusive roles or even on the leadership side?

[00:32:24.41] I think we're starting to see growth in a lot of different areas. We're also starting to see some interest from other professional areas that maybe you wouldn't associate with the NSCA, like engineering or biomechanics, on a higher level than where we've taken it in the past. So a lot of exciting things to come on that.

[00:32:43.78] All right, you've told your story of going to Michigan. If you were to coach yourself as a young professional, what are some of the things you'd do all over again? And what are some of the things you might do different on the professional development side.

[00:32:58.84] Yeah, great question. I get asked this question somewhat frequently. And one thing that I always like to share with up and coming coaches-- and I still consider myself a young coach. I have a lot of learning left to do, so-- but I like to say, always leave the door open. If there's something that sparks your interest, it's sparked it for a reason. So pursue it. Look into it. Don't close the door on it because it might not be directly related to strength and conditioning.

[00:33:35.78] But leave those doors open. And if something's intriguing, it's worth looking further into. And if you get to a point and you decide, nope, this isn't for me, you know that you pursued it, and the question won't be there. And if it does work out, great, you've opened another avenue in your career and grown as a professional.

[00:33:58.16] And even along the way, if it doesn't work out, more often than not, you're going to make some good connections. You'll learn something new that could be used. So always leaving that door open. And I'm grateful that throughout my time I had mentors that fostered that opinion.

[00:34:19.08] And then the other one, the other-- I, again, get asked this question a lot. And going to your question of, what would you do differently and what would you do the same? Early on, I was frequently asked, how do you manage being a female in a male-dominated field? And I just told them, I just coach. I coach, and I learn as much as I can, and I grow as much as I can, and I deliver it in the best, most effective way that I know how. And I continually learn new ways and investigate ways to deliver better.

[00:34:55.77] And so I try to take that out of the equation to an extent and say to be the best coach that you can be. And that means continual growth, good communication, and always coming back to your why within the field and that you're there to help people and you can help people at any time.

[00:35:22.00] I like that message-- being the best coach you can be. Going back to your why, you've mentioned a few times just a very goal-oriented approach of whether it's grounding your athletes on certain goals that you have as a program and as a school or grounding yourself professionally with your professional goals. I like that you were forward thinking to be-- you got on the phone with Michigan years ago. You didn't know where your career was going to take you, but you went for it. And it's really worked out for you to have some longevity there.

[00:35:59.66] And I know a lot of coaches would love to have an experience like that. Everybody's coaching path is different. It takes you a lot of different places. And for you to be able to build some success, homegrown success for you, that's really cool to hear that that does happen in our field.

[00:36:18.92] Really appreciate you sharing with me today and connecting with you. It sounds like Michigan is an awesome place that I need to come visit at some point. Bring a little NSCA love up there. But I always like connecting with great coaches that have a lot to say. You've been in the field for a while, and I know that school is really fortunate to have you. So thanks for being on.

[00:36:41.57] Thank you so much for having me. And I would just like to give a quick shout out to my crew here and the staff. If we didn't have the staff that we do and if I wasn't able to be a part of a team like this that encourages me and we encourage each other to be better all the time, I probably wouldn't have been here as long.

[00:37:04.67] So huge shout out to Mike Favre and the staff here for being a great group of individuals to work with. It goes a long way. And I definitely attribute some of the success I've seen in this field to being part of this group.

[00:37:20.59] Awesome. Strength and conditioning at the University of Michigan. Kate, before we jump off, just can you give us your Instagram or email or whatever the best way is to reach out?

[00:37:32.83] Yeah, probably email. I'm not extremely active on social media, but I do have an account. That one is-- it's just @KateHaycock. That's my maiden name. But email, which is on our website-- and it's kannehay@umich.edu. And, yeah, please feel free, reach out anytime. Pretty easy to get a hold of and always looking to help others. I know others have helped me quite a bit, so looking to pay it forward.

[00:38:02.38] That's awesome. Thanks again. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in today, and special thanks to Sorinex exercise equipment. We appreciate their support.

[00:38:10.07] I'm Ian Jeffries, the NSCA president. You've just listened to an episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast. Hopefully it's generated some interest in strength and conditioning and the NSCA. If it has, get involved. Go on to the NSCA website, see what opportunities are available, and I hope to see you at one of our events where you can be the next leadership generation of the NSCA.

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[00:38:37.90] This was the NSCA's Coaching Podcast. The National Strength and Conditioning Association was founded in 1978 by strength and conditioning coaches to share information, resources, and help advance the profession. Serving coaches for over 40 years, the NSCA is the trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals. Be sure to join us next time.

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