Game Changers, Part 3: Unlock Your Career Playbook

Join the University of Notre Dame’s Alumni Association for our virtual series: Game Changers: Unlock Your Career Playbook, powered by IrishCompass and co-sponsored by Notre Dame Athletics. We invite you – regardless of career stage, industry, or profession – to learn from inspiring leaders. 

Join us for an engaging talk with successful Notre Dame coaches: Volleyball's Head Coach Salima Rockwell, Fencing's Head Coach Gia Kvaratskhelia, and the Catalino Family Head Hockey Coach Brock Sheahan ’08. Discover how their approach to building winning athletic programs – from recruiting talent to fostering teamwork, building high-performing cultures, and achieving excellence – offers valuable lessons to elevate your own career! Moderated by Ron Powlus '97, Deputy Athletics Director – Football.

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Transcript

Sharon 0:06

Good evening everyone. I'm Sharon Kane, director of Professional Alumni Education Programs in the Notre Dame Alumni Association. Thank you so much for joining the Game Changer series and this Unlock Your Career Playbook program. I'm excited to introduce Ron Powell, who you might recognize as the four year starting quarterback and two time captain for the Fighting Irish from 1994 to 1997. He is currently Notre Dame's deputy Athletic Director for football and is the sport administrator for the two time national champion fighting Irish men's lacrosse team. After a stint in the NFL, Ron coached in the college ranks at Notre Dame. Akron and Kansas. In 2014, Ron returned to South Bend as the director of player development for football before assuming his current position in 2018. Throughout his entire career, Ron has remained committed to the highest levels of recruiting, player development, leadership, community service, and career success. Thank you for being here, Ron. And now I'll hand it over to you to lead us in this lively discussion about leadership on and off the field.

Ron 1:30

Great. Thanks Sharon. Thanks for having me. I'm, happy to join the program tonight and let me add my welcome to everyone here, to this Game Changers program, unlock Your Career Playbook. what a great program this will be, and certainly brought to you by Notre Dame's, alumni association and the Notre Dame Athletics Department. So thanks everyone for joining us. Happy to be here and be with you tonight. Sharon, as you as Sharon mentioned, I had the wonderful opportunity to, in my life, to be a part of the Notre Dame family as a student, as an athlete, you know, many years ago. and through the course of life to be gone and come back on a couple different occasions and rejoin this incredible university as an employee. You know, I know we all share a passion for Notre Dame for its mission and values. For what Notre Dame has done for us and what we can do for Notre Dame through connection and interaction and this important network. So I know that's so important to me and I know it's so important to everyone on this call as well. So thank you for everyone joining and being a part of the call, and thanks for all your support of the University of Notre Dame. As Sharon stated, this conversation, is with some Notre Dame coaches. it's called Unlock Your Career Playbook. So we'll have a little bit of a, an athletic flavor to this, and we're gonna focus on components that are essential to success in sports that can translate to career success, teamwork, culture, innovation, resilience, motivation, leadership, skill development among others. We've assembled, quite an accomplished panel to share on this topic. So let's hear from them. We'll start to bring in the coaches. First up, I wanna bring in Brock Sheen. Brock is a 2008 grad of Notre Dame. He played in 161 games here for the Irish. He was named top defenseman in his senior year, as well as his serving as, as a team captain. A tremendously successful career on the ice and coaching at the collegiate and professional levels. Brock brings all that experience back to lead our hockey team, having been named the head coach in March, 2025. Welcome to the stage Brock. Next step, we'll bring in Sima Rockwell. She was a three-time All-American player and a four-time national champion coach at Penn State. She's competed on the US National team, serving twice as team captain. She's been a member of the media. She was an analyst on air analyst for ESPN, Fox Sports NBC, including coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Another incredible knowledge base to bring to lead our volleyball program. She was named Head Coach in 2022. Welcome, Salima. And finally, GIA Clia. Gia is one of the most decorated coaches in the history of Notre Dame athletics, including a record six national championships. He's been named National Coach of the Year on multiple occasions. He's got an incredible track record of coaching at the collegiate and Olympic level. He's our head fencing coach since 2014. Welcome Gia to the stage. Thanks for having you. Ha, thanks for joining all of you. We're looking forward to a good conversation here to share your perspectives and insights about unlocking your career playbook. And as we get started with the conversation, I just wanna remind everyone this is, we want everybody out there involved in this conversation as well. Please use the online chat feature to submit some questions, and at the end, we'll find some time. To ask and answer some of those questions. But in the meantime, let's get started with some conversation considering team and teamwork, development of talent, you know, we can have the best plan in the world, but you gotta have teamwork and you gotta have, you gotta have good players, good athletes, good participants to do that at transcends sports and moves into the career world. So, Sima, we'll start with you. How do you identify talent? How do you identify and recruit and try to attract that top talent to your team in the University of Notre Dame?

Salima 5:31

Oh man, it's, first of all, I wanna say it's also gonna be here. So thanks for having me on this panel, and if I'm, I have a weird head tilt. It's because my, I have a glare apparently on my glasses, so I'm gonna leave my head up this way. but it is, you know, it's a really good question because there, it, you know, encompasses so much, when you're recruiting talent, obviously you want, you need the top athletes, the best. Volleyball players to, to put on the court. but there's so much more than that and, you know, we're always looking at the entire athlete. I think that's sometimes what student athletes don't realize that we're looking and watching when they may not even realize we are. And it's how they interact, how they're interacting with their parents on the sideline, how they're responding to a coach. when things aren't going well, are they coachable? You know, there's so many inta in. Intangibles that certainly that we look for, that makes the entire athlete, you know, Notre Dame's a special place, and I know Brock and Gia can speak to so much more with their years of experience here. but it's gotta be a fit, right? there's got to be an absolute fit of alignment in what we're all about at Notre Dame. So, you know, when you think about, and you talk to businesses or talk to someone that's in a different perspec profession, you always have your own philosophy, your own, whether it's your companies, your personal coaching philosophy, does that align? and once you start getting things in alignment, I think it helps flush out, choosing and identifying talent a little bit earlier and quick, quicker. And talent that'll stick around that won't leave for another job or won't potentially even transfer to another school. So we're looking for high quality, high character. Always leaning on advice of club coaches that, you know, relationships are key, right? Do you know high school coaches and club coaches that can vouch for someone? because doing your homework and doing your research ahead of time really helps us, us identify and find the right talent.

Ron 7:27

Brock, do you see it any differently? you, you were an athlete here, you were a student here and now you're coaching. do you see it any differently how you're trying to attract that top talent? No,

Brock 7:35

it's all very similar. I do think the fit, especially at a place like Notre Dame, valuing what Notre Dame has to offer and understanding that obviously we want elite hockey players. You want young men that wanna play at the highest level that wanna play in the NHL, but they also understand that there's more to that. by coming to Notre Dame, you're just, you're opening doors and they've, they have to want to actually be in the classroom and they have to be a true fit there. As, as far as like the strictly like talent piece, I think all of our competitors we're looking to get the best, most talented players, but for us, are they gonna be able to grow and get better as well? Right? Like when we're recruiting. At a relatively young age, are they tapped out? are they the type of person that wants to work to get better, that, that has an ability to grow within their skillset? do they have that mindset? And the only way you learn that, and Selima talked about it, is the relationships you have with people that know them well, getting to know their parents, getting to know their coaches in our business, getting to know their agents. Advisors, have relying on those contacts and having, you know, trusted relationships so that, you know, in moments where you don't have a ton of time to evaluate, or you're just looking strictly at the on ice skill, you need to know what kind of person that you're getting. And that's important for us as a staff to, to vet.'cause if they don't fit here and they don't wanna work and they're not, they don't have a capacity to learn or get better, then that, that becomes problematic.

Ron 8:59

You've got the most experience here at Notre Dame on, on, on this panel. you've been recruiting prospects, for quite some time and certainly identifying top talent specifically, like how, where do you find, how do you find that top talent? Where do, how do you go looking for that and how do you identify it? You're obviously in a specialized sport and so how do you go about that? How do you approach finding the right fencers to be a part of Notre Dame?

Gia 9:24

Thank you so much for being inviting me and being on this panel. Every time I sit right next to Sima, I feel like my cool factor goes up. Truly, she's a legend and Brock gonna be amazing. You know what I see demeanor and his personality. Notre Dame is so lucky to bring him back and lead this program and. Ron, I mean, I think Pete will be very proud of you where you're conducting right now, you are in control. so with the coaches here, you know, when I talk about, I would want to emphasize the teamwork here from all our coaches. You know, what do we do? It's all together. it's a combined work of bringing amazing men and women from all over the world. And 15, the quarter of our team, it consists of the international athletes. So last year we traveled to 18 different countries outside the United States to find that those, to identify as well as Americans were competing on that level in, in the World Cups and find the best of the best in the world to bring them here. And it's not about the talent, in our opinion here, everybody's baseline talent. It's a potential, can we see the potential in a second level talent by identified with someone else? So we can bring them here. Set the expectations and moral values Notre Dame expects, and then the conversation will start that after that. And we tell them, okay, if you come here, if you were to be here, those are the expectations you have to follow. And Notre Dame has own sets, the values and direction. we need to steer them. And then we'll tell them, in order to be successful, you have to do X, Y, and Z. Could we meet in a halfway? And whenever it happens to matchmaking the hammer, heaven For sure.

Ron 11:12

That's great. You know, we all, there's so much focus on in recruiting and, as kids are developing their skills on a, on, on a level and beyond. There's a lot of focus on the self right, on the talent, on the on. What am I doing? How am I getting better? And as a coach on your level, and Brock we'll start with you on this, but on a coach on your level, you have to develop the individual skills. You, everybody needs that. And there's focus on that, but you also have to develop the team and get the performance as a team to happen, as well. how do you go about balancing the individual development of the athlete or the performer and and still maintaining the team model?'cause we need such high team performance as well. How do you do that together?

Brock 11:56

I think it's a great question. and especially in, in, I'm sure it's in every sport, especially in our world. Like, I think of when I was growing up playing, you know, when I was a player here at Notre Dame. Team was everything like that hockey is a team sport. If you watch hockey more than any other professional sports, you watched the Stanley Cup final last night, the sacrifice, it's all about the team. There has been a major shift, especially in our sport where you're talking about Ron with youth, the professionalism of youth sports in general, there's a lot of focus on the individual, right. And like in my time coaching, I find that if you can't get the buy-in from the individual, the team aspect is gonna, it's not gonna work. Right? So where I've had the most success at the pro level or, you know, at the junior level, working with even younger players, as we talk about parallel lines of development and you have your individual path, and we have a plan for that individual and we're working on helping them grow their game and having them invest in that process. And then you have the team. the team parallel line of the team development and all of that individual stuff is within the team structure. and what I've found is it's all about building relationships. If they can trust you, if they truly feel like you're invested in them as people, and that takes a lot of work and time, then, and especially when you're doing that individual work, it's gonna help with the team buy-in and then before you know what, your team's getting better as a result of each individual getting better. and the buy-in to what the team's doing, especially as the year progresses and time progresses becomes even greater.

Ron 13:32

Sima, how you, how do you see it? Do you see it any differently or a different perspective in your sport?

Salima 13:38

You know, I see it very similar. but you know, I think when he talked about the trust, you know, that's the number one thing that I feel like when you can. You create that trust within your student athlete, it's one-on-one. there's so many things that can happen, right? The investment that Brock was talking about, I get to know you as a person. I actually care about you and your family and what's going on in your life, and how can I help you along with the skill development, they trust you, right? So you have that and all of a sudden it's a model, it's a model for them and how they act within your team. And now they're creating those lines of trust within one another. So it's not just you and I and then it just happens and the teams rolling. There is a model of behavior that is crucial in leadership positions. And I think when you are open and you listen and you hear, and you adjust and you make changes, you know, even tonight, and I will say this. Yeah. Every time I do something like this, I reflect on how I am, I'm running my program. what am I doing, actually, what does that look like? Do I need to write this down? Do I need to make it a little bit more robust? And I think once you're always looking at yourself, reflecting, developing, growing. They can see that you build that trust. Then they're just doing it with within one another. It's just like being at home. they do what they see your kids do what they see you do. and I think there's a lot of that in our sport. So, so many of the things that Brock said, but certainly that trust factor helps create that bond and that buy-in for the entire team to work together.

Ron 15:19

Yeah, your sport is seen as a little bit more of an individualized or specialized sport, but you're obviously part of a team, their strategy of timing and things like that. So do you, how do you, that's a unique challenge. it's not 11 people or nine people, or eight people moving at once. it's a little bit more individuals working for the betterment of the team. how do you lean into teamwork?

Gia 15:42

So I'll throw a little bit of numbers around here. So to succeed and win the NCAs, we have to qualify 12 individuals. So no team has won with 11 versus others 12. So no matter how great you are, you're still missing the one piece, which is a 23 extra matches. So we have 65 men and women on the team. 32 will travel during year 24, will go to qualifying event. To have a shot to go to NCAAs Water, down to 12 athletes go to NCAAs. It's a lot of shrinking throughout of years, throughout one year, so, so it's really hard to motivate everyone to buy into the program and give a hundred percent every single day for good of the team. And Brock mentioned and Sima, the trust, the word trust and investment. It has to be selfless and it has to be catered to each of one of them with fully in the kids' benefits and their growth. And you'll get the kickback. It has to be give and take. If you do, you give and you give as much and you're gonna get back. So giving the selflessly a hundred percent and having that staff who could identify those values and commit to their development and their wellbeing, I. A hundred percent that the keys for success. Obviously individual sports like fencing would actually comprise it as a team at the end. I had a situations, then I would've gotten a phone call at night and someone was struggling and I would've been on my way to their dorms. I get there and my assistant coaches are al already there. Yeah. So that what makes this place so unique and also trust investment is one thing, but university also provides such an incredible umbrella of devotion one to another. So we are so lucky to be in the place and people truly care more than anywhere else, in my opinion. It's my 20th year at university and I still drink in the Kool-Aid and realizing how special this place is.

Ron 17:53

Well, I'm with you, GIA. No, that's great. And as we're talking teamwork and, you know, that, that part of the conversation kind of evolved from talent and the recruiting to teamwork. And it leads kind of into the next topic we want to get to, which is culture and, and the standard and how do you maintain that? And you guys just, you leaned into it a little bit there and talking about trust and in the investment in one another. So everybody has this selfless attitude to be one. And what we're describing when we're describing teamwork, it sounds like culture is what you're getting to and the culture to activate that way. Selima, do you, when you're. Considering culture and teamwork and the things we, we were just talking about, is there tricks of the trade? Is there some special things you do? Is there, do you have any kind of team building activities or anything that, that, that gets'em going in a way to not only build the team, but enhance the culture?

Salima 18:46

Yeah. You know, I think, any way that we can get them to get to know one another better and in the best way possible always helps. And, you know, again, I've been in the corporate world too. We do little meetings and you do ice breakers and team things, you know, and those things are real and they can help. And if you're fortunate enough to be with a prog a team consistently, you can do these things over and over time. And I think one of the biggest things, there's a couple of things, I won't talk too long, but one thing that I love to do with our team is really get them together and have them discuss openly. What works, what motivates them, what type of communication from another teammate actually gets a response out of them. And some players, you know, some people need a hey smack on the butt or whatever it is, and it's, Hey, let's get it going. And you're, you know, you've got this or somebody wants, you know, you gotta tell'em, you're gonna pump'em up, get in their ear. Somebody wants to say, Hey, let's calm down here now. And they'll tell you. And I think that's one of the biggest things when, and certainly in our sport, when they start to feel close to one another, they don't wanna hurt, they don't wanna offend each other. So they're not sure how to pull, how to hold one another accountable. How do you get the most out of one another? So the culture becomes one that we understand each other well, I. So we'll do these little team activities or they're understanding one another, how to get the most out of each other to create this whole team thing. You know, putting the team first. Obviously in our sport, that's everything. we don't function one without the other, you know? And I think the other thing that, that we like to do is, let's have the team come up with this. What are our pillars? what, who are we as a team? And what's non-negotiable, you know, and how we operate as a program. What are our standards, our goals? So then when, you know, they get on the court, they know it's, they're invested now. We talk about us being invested in them. Now they're invested in the whole process of this culture that we're trying to build. And it's really a powerful thing when they take some ownership in that process of building the culture.

Ron 21:03

Brock, do you and have you in your coaching career and as you get going here in at Notre Dame as the head coach, do you envision or have you experienced that type of buy-in, you know, getting the team, the players, the athletes, the participants involved in, in the pillars in setting the standards and setting the culture? Is that something you've been in, been around? Yeah.

Brock 21:27

Yeah. It's something that honestly, like the foundational culture that set at Notre Dame Hockey, I would say, came in when Coach Jackson came in. And, a big piece of that was our group. Like literally writing down what those foundational pieces are. I think that's important. what I've learned, like to get true buy-in, I. It has to do with consistency and communication by the staff. It has to do with, what actions are being done day to day by staff and the, and the players. Like it's one thing to write things down. It's another thing to truly, be bought in and be intentional and be invested every day. Like that's really what a good culture is, right? And it doesn't mean that things are gonna be perfect all the time. And to Sima's point, I think it's gotten harder and harder for people to, challenge one another in a healthy way. And I think that's our job. you know, our each staff's job is to help our young people grow in that way where there's true trust in one another, where they have the relationship where if things aren't being done to the standard that we've talked about, that we can talk about that openly and be honest. Right. And again, all this goes back to the relationships that you have that have been built from the coaching staff to the players player, to player, to coaching staff. And that to me is a lot of work. And it's day-to-day work. It's not one-offs. It's not. And that's where like, I do think, you know, having your pillars and having, you know, certain, team building activities, there is a positive to that, but they're fleeting. Like those things kinda drift away. it's the day-to-day interactions and that's been the biggest thing that I've communicated early on in this process to our group. and challenge them to be a connected group as a whole, not a bunch of pieces fractured.

Ron 23:19

That's great. Gia. You've had so much success. I don't know if you've ever had a challenging culture. I mean, you just keep winning wins. Do you just win? So I don't know if you've ever had a challenging culture, but ha have you, and in some of the different, you know, whether it's in an Olympic arena or with a team that was kind of missing the mark on culture, like we're getting a little bit off kilter here. have you gone through any challenges to pull the culture back into the way to the way the program needs to be? first

Gia 23:48

of all, when you gimme ans no, make me to answer the third. There's a third person after these two brilliant speakers here. Try to reframe it for you.

Ron 23:57

I reframed it for you.

Gia 23:58

Yeah. absolutely. You know, challenges, monumental challenges. You don't get there to the path we are right now. And it's nothing to brag, but sustaining success, it's a part of the hard labor. Obviously it's a lot of failures lead to the successes we are experiences experiencing right now. We had dark days when we had to abolish the captainship, institution here with our team. And we didn't have captains for six years because it was a declining of the culture. Because as of coaches, we felt like we knew everything. We had a early success. And when you have success earlier than you should, then you start believing that you are something really special. And that's the first sign of, declining. And we made the mistakes. We did not hold each other accountable, the kids, and we felt like it was normal to win and we, it belonged to us. again, one thing leads to another and we ran into the wall. We lost a couple net championships and we didn't look good and we had a unrealistic expectations and we overthought about ourselves. So self-evaluation was the number one. And then starting from soul searching, what have I've done that led our team to this decline and talked to each other and then we made a hard decision. And then we had a two. We have a two signs, an entire premises that is not much slogans where coming outta the locker room. Men and women both have a sign. Excellence is a habit. And a second one way before the exit, the, the locker rooms space and go into the field. One team, one heartbeat. And we are gonna stick to that. Our kids, as our coaches, our staff here are obligated to be excellent. Everything they do, the friendships, the mentorships, and work hard and the classrooms behavior, moral conduct. Ethical code, you name it. And we try to morph them into the one unit, which comprises Notre Dame fencing team. and a combination of those two were the success stories. Were kind of continuing to, proceed for these days.

Ron 26:13

That's great. You guys are fantastic. Gia. I even gave you the hard angle of that question and you handled it wonderfully. And it just speaks to the way you guys have created culture and the cultures you've lived through. But as we're correlate this from, you know, sports to career, I mean the things that I write down, trust, investment, consistency, communication, hard work, self-evaluation, one team, one heartbeat, and it all leads to relationships. And you guys all talked about how the relationships. Really set the stage for a fantastic culture. we need culture in any, in, we need teamwork and culture in any arena that we're going to compete, whether it's in, in the athletic world or in the business world. but we need leaders as well. We need leaders. There's not, some are some walk in the door and you say that's a leader and others you have to help get it out of'em. You have to drag it out of'em. So, or help develop them. And especially, you know, sometimes a roster is young, sometimes you don't have the leadership at the top you want. and gee, I would start with you. How do you cultivate leadership? how do you bring leadership to the forefront, kind of on the individuals on your team that can represent the whole team? In my

Gia 27:27

opinion, the title does not equate to the leadership. You know, we didn't have. The captains for six years and that the evaluation process was they have to have a substance as an athlete, they have to be really strong athlete and they have to have a personalities to go with that. And if we don't have that one, we just choose not to have a captains and everyone leads with their examples. You know, leaders define how they accomplish the mission and if they care for the others. And if those two don't correlate, we don't have a leaders. And we had a four out of 10 years that we had an incredible captains and they led the team with the pride and with the success. And sometimes we don't. So we like, again, we'll invest with everyone's development. We bring the Navy SEAL team here and we do the training with them to teach us what it takes to help each other during diversity, what it takes to self-sacrifice for the others. Do you have those traits to be able to do that? at the end of the day. We give them. And if this, those virtues resonate, we put them to the leadership position. Other than that, we move on and we search for the next one.

Ron 28:42

That's great. Well, I'm gonna take this a different angle for you, Selima. as a leader yourself, you all three of you coaches are leaders. you're, and we're talking to leaders, on this program. You have to balance your life and your leadership and your work and family. And how do you do that? how do you change gears? how do you lead and not get inundated with work only? how do you create a work life balance? Can you.

Salima 29:08

Yeah, you know, it's a good question. it's a difficult question. it's one I've been asking myself for a very long time. I, you know, I think it's just a mistake to feel like you have to have this 50 50. I'm balancing everything perfectly. you know, for me, I, you know, I used to carry so much guilt when I started coaching, being gone from the kids and, you know, being away and you have to grind when you're coaching, when you're working, you really do, to do it right and to do it well. But you also realize. When you come home, if you can put everything away, it's the amount of quality time and how you invest in your own children and family when you're with them. I mean, that was one thing my husband used to always say. He is like, you're a way better parent than I am.'cause I'm around so much and I'm just like, I'm over it. And you come home and you're locked. You wanna talk to them about things. You're interested in everything that's going on. So, so it's really interesting. but you do, you tr you do have to figure that out over, over time and at a certain point it's like, okay, what's important right now? What's most important in my life right now? and you have to make some decisions and I've gotten a lot better over the years. but I, you know, it certainly wasn't perfect at first. I really doing my best to let things go. And that's either with the staff and delegating. I wasn't a great delegator before.'cause I'm a control freak and I had to. Make sure everything was fine. But, you know, I'm so fortunate now to have a staff that's elite and, you know, I can let go of some things a little more easily. So the leadership, you know, that, that piece of it, when you're working with your team and trying to balance home or just personal life, it's really important. Your mental health and your mental state really carries over to your team, the stress that's involved. And if you can figure that out, whether it's with meditation or quiet things in the morning, or having a routine yourself. For me, if I work out in the morning, I have a great day. If I don't, and it doesn't have to be crazy, I'm not grinding, I'm not doing burpees anymore, that ship sailed. Unfortunately, I used to be really good at that. But, that's me and that's my routine. So finding that, that routine that works for you, that allows you to be grounded in both spaces of your life.

Ron 31:33

It is cyclical, right? Like you, sometimes you're going full tilt one way or the other, and you gotta find the balance. there's no doubt about it. a few last questions for each of you here as we get set to bring on some questions, from the crowd out there. I'll start with you, Brock, while we're on the topic of leadership, who's a leader? Who, who's a leader in your past or who do you want to emulate or who do you look up to or who's been a great leader for you? that, that applies to your coaching career?

Brock 31:58

Yeah, that, that's, like, I've played for a lot of good coaches, elite people. the person that I want to emulate, or I've always tried to emulate is outside of, that it's my grandfather, my, my papa. That's what he called him. he was like most in, I'd say influential person for me as far as just how to. Live your life and the type of person to be and how to interact with other humans. And he loved hockey. Like he played way back in the minors. And, really funny stories before the NHL draft, like they, Boston Bruins came to his house in, Fort Francis Ontario, and they like, gave him a jacket and paid for some groceries for his parents. And that's how he got into pro hockey. Totally different time, but he just, you know, he always listened and when he listened, like you knew he was there and paying attention And, I think that's something that I try to do really well. And, I think that it's our job as coaches in our roles to truly be there for our athletes. and he was always there for me and that's something that I has always influenced me and something that I tried to emulate in my coaching.

Ron 33:05

Awesome. Love the people you look up to. Gia. a last question for you here. what's one piece of advice you would give the folks on the call here that are listening? What's, what's one piece of advice you'd give these, these people to think about, in their career as professionals? what would be that advice to someone who's in, who's looking to enact the full throttle of their career?

Gia 33:28

Gosh, me giving advice to someone. I must have made the big leagues here. So, truly I will not dare to give anyone advice, but suggestion. I would say we wanna hear from you. I would suggest leave the ego on the side. You know, this is the downfall of the everyone when your ego gets away from the objectives and it takes over that what the bad things happen. So with clear heart. Heart and empathy and a kindness and love to the others. If you could do that with ego on the side, that would be my only suggestion, not an advice.

Ron 34:04

That's great. Sima, same question to you. any advice here to the game changers out there?

Salima 34:09

And I love what Gia said, and I'll kind of take that a little different, direction. You know, I feel like for all of us that continue, the best players, the best coaches, leaders in the world are always striving to get better. You know, somebody said at one point, you know, I, we were talking about winning and you're not always your best team because you've won a match. You know, I just. Call a match. You were talking about, I'm doing some broadcasting. I'm actually in Turkey right now, so I will tell you guys this. I'm in Assemble and, the Turkey coach, he was so fired up in the middle. They won the rally. They won the set. And my cocom says, why is he so upset? I said, well, because he knows they can play better. And I think if you ever get to the point where you think you know it all, or you think you've got it all down done, that's the end of your career. That's where it stops always striving. And that's how you get yourself and your team to continue to keep pushing. You know, there's a little more gas in the tank. You know, you've got a little more in you. Even after winning national championships. We're coming back saying, we can be even better next year. I don't know what that looks like, but that keeps you hungry. That keeps your team hungry, that keeps your staff hungry. How do we just elevate it a little bit more and you just keep striving for it, keep going for it, and keep working on getting better. That's great.

Brock 35:40

I agree with that 100%. Like, I think one of the whatever mantras I have very few things like sayings, the battle of getting better is never ending. and I truly believe that, and really what it's talking about is your process. you're not, everyone talks about process and results. You know, everybody's, in the end of the day, we're all in a results based business, whatever it is. Whether it's college athletics, whether it's the private sector, whatever you're doing, like the results, but to get those results, you have to have a consistent process and being able to truly evaluate your process, I think it's hard to do. And I think a lot of people really struggle with that, and that's something that I hope to do here with our staff and our players really well.

Ron 36:23

Well, it's great. It's great to interact and talk with you guys. I know we've all talked, I don't know that the three of us have ever sat and talked together too. so it's great to have conversation with you where I know there's some, some questions from the audience that we want to get to and, and let you get on some specifics from their questions. So we'll look for an opportunity here to select a couple questions and, and finish this off here in a bit. Here comes Sharon.

Sharon 36:52

And our, our audience wants in on it. So we've got some, I'm gonna start this off. Harry Paluso is asking, what are some good practices you've seen from your players and how they keep each other accountable? So much of work and life is, you know, we're responsible for ourselves, but how do we keep each other while maintaining that sense of team? So, Brock, I'm gonna ask you to start that one.

Brock 37:18

Yeah. I think it's little comments, right? Like, whether for us on the bench where, you know, somebody says something from a negative tone and they in like a positive way, Hey, like, not right now. We don't need that right now. Like, let's stay the course. Like those type of comments where they're not, combative, right? It's just like redirecting somebody. I think, can really be helpful, whether that's in practice for us or in games. Like they know that, you know, they know what those standards are and they're just like little, they're little comments. And it could be from anybody, you know, to G'S point, like what captain or not that everyone has can influence, right? So I think that like, that's something I've already seen with our group, you know, in the spring sessions and whatnot and something we'll continue to encourage them to do

Sharon 38:03

anything to build on Gia

Gia 38:07

wholeheartedly agree. The positive encouragement and the truth has to be truth. You know, again, you truth could be done in know brutal ways or the positive ways, but if they're truthful to each other and honest about it, nothing should be taken personally. And everything has to be directed because we're even, they're 18 years old, they're professionals to their craft. They know what's right and they need to learn how to accept the truth. And, as a coaching staff, we try to be brutally honest with them, knowing what's gonna happen. What if they choose one or another. And truth from each other will be also the huge value, to each other.

Sharon 38:46

Yeah. wonderful. Appreciate that so much. so many good questions coming, in here to touch on some of this. so to build on what we've touched on so far, you know, teams can be tough. We've talked about individual contributors, but being part of a overall team. So, John, Patuka wants to know, please tell us about the worst teams you've been part of in your lives and what drove the poor performance. Ron, I'm gonna bring you in, in, on, on this, you know, because when we look at the poor performance, we can extrapolate what some of the highest performance right? People wanna be part of high performing teams.

Ron 39:23

So we're gonna talk about the worst performance of Bring me in. Thanks.

Sharon 39:27

Sorry, Ron. You've got broad shoulders.

Ron 39:29

No, I'll tell you. And it's, and it ref, it's a reflection of what these great coaches have talked about. I, you know, I think the most challenging or challenged teams and that I've been a part of are teams that they lose their way of culture and teamwork. You know, you, well, you wind up with selfishness and, focusing on self instead of team, focusing on outcomes instead of process, focusing on the results and not your teammates. and that's always, I think, presented the biggest problem because, you know, in, in my experiences on team sports, you need everybody on the same page. And, when the focus gets too inward and too singular on the self, that's where team teams that have been have struggled in my world, that's where it's come from.

Sharon 40:12

Wonderful Selima. Oh,

Brock 40:15

I got something on, I sure. I was a, as a player, was a part of the worst team at the University of Notre Dame in hockey history. And the best, so I think, and a large portion of the team that won 32 games as a, my junior year won seven games as freshmen and sophomores and whatever, and juniors. so just to like, it's, the margins are thin and to Ron's point, you know, if you lose your way and you, every team has cracks. The best teams have cracks, right? Like they do, they get exposed in adverse situations. So, you know, whether it's the coaching staff, the leadership, the group in general, if they can lean into adversity and learn from it, you can get out of it. If it. If it consumes you and you have, the wrong approach, it can break you. and the, and in, in the competitive landscape of all of our sports, the margins are actually really thin.

Sharon 41:12

Right. I think what you're speaking to and is also around resilience and selima, you probably have a perspective on that, right? Not every year's a winning season. Winning. how do you make your way through and develop that mental toughness and stay positive?

Salima 41:26

Well, you know, it's a challenge. I doing that. but it comes with so much of what we talked about and, sorry, there's somebody vacuuming. I'm in a hotel, I apologize, who knew people cleaned at three o'clock in the morning? but that's what's happening. But I think when you look at the process, and we talk about growth mindset, and I think it's very important to talk about that when you're looking at an entire body of work, how do you continue to. To push and to move forward. When you're making errors, you're making mistakes. You're talking about accountability, mistakes are gonna happen, you know, lack of effort, not an option. You know, there are things that you have to measure and you have to say, okay, this is what's acceptable and this is what's not. So if we're striving on the same page moving forward and don't come out in the end with a w you have to also define your level of what is success, right? What was the successful stu season for a young team, for a team that absolutely battled, because you never know how things are gonna line up, who you're gonna get matched up with at the end, you're gonna get matched up with early. and that's true with everything in life. And so continuing to look forward and put the team, you know, I'd like to create situations and practice. That's another thing. That really prepares them to be resilient in the games, in future games. Like how are we preparing now? What does that process look like that you're used to get getting knocked back just a little bit, you know, whether it's a scoring system, whether it's how we structure a drill. So when you get in the game, you know, the biggest compliment I ever heard about our program, in the past was it's easier playing in games than it is in practice. Practice is hard and games it, like the whole world opens up. Preparing them through the process builds that resilience. I

Sharon 43:26

love it. Well, resiliency is one of those keys to performing high and well over time. when and whenever not everything goes your way. you are all champions here, right? and the, some of the rest of us struggle from time to time. And Brian Keller, on behalf of so many is asking, you know, are there ways that you've dealt with imposter syndrome as you've mo moved through your career? Selima, you're nodding your head, so I'm gonna go straight back to you on this one first, but we'll ask others to weigh in as well

Salima 43:56

without question. Because you, you do things in your life and you get pretty good at it. And then you start to make a shift and say, gosh, am I actually qualified for this? I mean, I know I was a good player. I know that I know a lot about this sport, but now I'm responsible for all these humans, all these, you know, I think, you know, my daddy used to always tell me, Hey. you know, you've heard the fake it till you make it, and you don't have to completely do that. But really just saying to yourself, I put myself in tough situations before and can I go back to that? In this situation, I started broadcasting with no experience and, you know, it's, for me, it becomes now this fun challenge. And I think when you prepare your student athletes for a challenge that becomes exciting and new and different, and they can see the growth in themselves. that's what I learned growing up from my household, from playing at Penn State, from my coaches there. I want to put myself in those challenges just to see if I can do it. I mean, I come to Notre Dame, I wanna do something special here. This is a totally different route for me. I've won a lot and now I'm building to win. And, it's not easy and you have imposter syndrome a lot, but you gotta just keep your head down. You gotta keep moving forward, man, because it, it happens to all of us. I talk to the top athletes, happens to them all the time.

Sharon 45:20

Yeah. Very human. Very human. Others,

Brock 45:23

I was just gonna say like, even the best athletes, I have some really good friends that have won Stanley Cups, won major trophies, and you talk to them and they're like, that, you can sense they've lost confidence. and, you know, for someone who didn't play in the NHL, you're like, I, you know, you've had 72 points in a hockey season. Like, how are you, how have you lost confidence? They're human. they're human beings, right? I think that if you, for us as coaches, I, I think about that all the time. Like, our best players can lose confidence. It's our job to help instill confidence, you know, sometimes. An old school coaching motto would be like, well, it's not, that's not my job. They need to be confident. I disagree with that. It's our job to help our players, right? Be like, they need to know we believe in them. from a personal standpoint, you know, then in different situations, I think the biggest thing that's helped me is just being myself. Like I've talked about this before, Sleeman and I have done a couple things, and like some coaches, I know they have this like, coach persona. I think it's, I do, I made a choice going from assistant coach or associate coach to head coach, whereas like, I'm gonna continue to have my personality. and I think I'm gonna get the buy-in even more from the players, you know, not that I don't hold them accountable to do this or that, but they can genuinely feel that this is a real person talking to them, not somebody trying to talk like what they think a coach should sound like. You know? So I think that having that confidence is huge.

Sharon 46:46

Right. And being authentic, relating to people in a very genuine way is what I'm hearing you say, GIA, anything coming to your mind on this?

Gia 46:53

The grit, like resilience, the grit, you know, Joe Thorpe, you know, one of the legend of American, sports won the Olympics with the two different shoes because his shoes were stolen right before his event, and it had two different size of shoes he was wearing. Can we develop the grit and tenacity in our athletes to be able to withstand any kind of difficulties in, in the front? and then like, like Rock said, we have to help them to facilitate and develop that. And we have to be examples of that. You know, the hard work every single day, attention to details and fearless approach will get our athletes to be successful, for sure.

Sharon 47:34

Right. Ron, I wanna give you the opportunity as well.

Ron 47:38

I, you know, I, I. I've certainly been through situations where resiliency is necessary. and you know, I don't think I could describe it any better way than these great coaches have to consider, you know, battling through and regaining confidence and, being authentic. I, I think they describe it in a terrific way, because we all have our ups and downs, you know, things happen that you have to bounce back from. And, you know, it's maintaining that standard and the expectations for yourself and, and reminding yourself, you know, i, not dissimilar from what Brock described, I went through a time in my attempt to, to play professional football where I didn't, I was. I, I got way off track on physically how I was approaching the game. And, you have to remind yourself of what you can do and what you're able to do and bring that confidence back. So I don't think it's, you know, it doesn't correlate to everybody, but don't forget your highlight tape. You know that you have to remember what you can do, in, in any aspect of life.

Sharon 48:36

Love it. Well, as we, we've covered a lot of ground and done it so well, I wanna wrap with these questions around, haw Hamilton wants to know if you have a mentor at this point, and maybe also serving as a mentor that can be such an accelerant. So, Sima.

Salima 48:56

Yeah. you know, I don't have a specific mentor, but I have mentors in my life that I call all the time. you know, people that I lean on, to give me advice, whether that's my mom, whether that's, you know, my mom, she ran a non, you know, a, I guess a social work agency for ages and ages, and it's, she called it mom management, you know, and it's all the things we're describing here now, and people were underpaid and overworked, but they loved working for her because she valued them. They believed in her. So I learned a lot from her and just how she was able to retain her staff and keep them positive. So my, my mother and, former, a couple of former coaches, but I also mentor quite a few, either former student athletes that I've coached years ago, and just I'm. I try to make myself accessible. So again, not a specific mentor. I do have student athletes at Notre Dame that have mentors, which is awesome. They have someone either in their field of study or another coach, you know, that helps mentor them. And I think it's just absolutely invaluable. Or you can do for someone, or someone can do for you. Little things, little tips, tricks, whether it's just, having someone to bounce ideas off of, we all need it. we all need help in this world, in whatever we're doing. I think it's a fabulous idea to receive the help and to help others as well.

Sharon 50:19

Brock, no doubt. You've, you're mentoring your team. You all are, you know, do you have a mentor?

Brock 50:24

like, not specifically, but I feel like I have so many good relationships with former coaches. Like, whether it's Coach Jackson, who, you know, is just working for, you coach Pooley, coach Schlager, guys that coached me. I lean on those type of people. And then like, as far as am I a mentor, like I just, there's a lot of, I, similar to Liam, I stay in touch with people I've worked with, played, played with, or that guys that have played for me and try to be as open and available as possible.

Sharon 50:53

Yeah. Gia,

Gia 50:56

I do have a mentor. my dad was my mentor until he's still alive, but he's not in the mental shape to be able to do that, do so. But I have a friend of mine who accepted and adapted me when I came to states and gave me all the opportunities to become who I am. He lives in Kansas. His name is Boo Hodges, and every time I need advice, I can call him and rely on his honest opinion. For sure.

Sharon 51:22

Love it. And Ron?

Ron 51:24

Yeah. mentor for so much of my life was my dad. He, he passed away now, about 11 years ago. incredible mentor to me in the way I thought and considered things. I've been fortunate to the last two guys, the guy I'm working for now and previously, and Jack Swarbrick was a terrific resource and mentor in so many ways, and now, in a different style and a different way, but an incredible resource. and Pete Qua to, be a person that I can lean on for thoughts and advice. Wonderful.

Sharon 51:52

Well, thank you. You guys have been so thoughtful. You've given a lot of advice. We've covered, a lot of territory around teamwork and culture, adversity, grit, mentorship, performance, thank you, for being so generous with your experience giving insights, into others as they make their way through life and their career. There's a lot, that you've shared that they can apply. So I just wanna thank you Ron and Gia. Brock and Sima so much, for being part of Game Changers and unlocking your career playbook for all of us who were here with you tonight and who will listen into, this in the future. So thank you. thank you. I want to also let people know that Game Changers, this series is brought to you by the Alumni Association, is powered by Irish Compass. Irish Compass is the university's official professional online community for networking, for coaches, for accessing, mentors, jobs and so much more. So, we encourage our students and our alumni to be active on Irish Compass to be helped and to help others as well over the life of career. It really is where we go to tap into that legendary Notre Dame network. So. you're going to find, game Changers, the series on Irish Compass nd.edu, and you can also find it on Think nd.edu. So thank you again for joining us for this. Unlock Your Career Playbook. Go Irish.