NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 71: Kayleigh Fournier

Kayleigh Fournier, now Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning at Dartmouth College, talks to the former NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about her journey from unpaid intern to head strength coach. Topics under discussion include work ethic as a young professional getting into the field, programming for unconventional sports, and diversifying your network of support.

Connect with Kayleigh through email: kayleigh.fournier@dartmouth.edu

“So I think you have to be willing to travel and put yourself out in someplace different and diversify yourself.” 6:36

“You have to be willing to really get in there, get dirty, and put it all out the line. And if you're not really putting yourself out there, are you going to get that job? Are you going to impress your supervisors enough?” 7:48

“You need to be able to reach out and be friends with all the sports coaches, because they're going to help you.” 13:13

“Keep the door open. Don't ever turn people away, continually talk to people, see what they're doing. Reaching out has been the best thing for me.” 26:50

“Ask other people what they're doing with their programs. If you have a weird sport that you're not sure about, go and find someone who does. Find the expert in it.” 27:44

[00:00:00.60] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, episode 71.

[00:00:05.04] You have to be willing to really get in there, get dirty, and put it all out on the line. And if you're not really putting yourself out there, are you going to get that job? Are you going to impress your supervisors enough?

[00:00:18.33] 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.

[00:00:29.52] Welcome the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I am Scott Caulfield. Today, joining me at the national conference 2019 in Washington DC, Kayleigh Fournier from NYU right here in the city, well not this city, but in the city. Not far away. Welcome to the show.

[00:00:47.05] Thanks for having me. I'm very excited.

[00:00:48.95] Yeah, super excited. You are in another city now, but our kind of connection also goes back to the old White Mountains and the grand Dartmouth College.

[00:01:02.22] Good old Dartmouth.

[00:01:04.33] I think it's always neat for me when you've coached somewhere and if you're still connected there and you stop back by to meet the people that are in there and get to connect with people.

[00:01:16.37] Yeah, when used to come through all the time.

[00:01:18.21] Yeah.

[00:01:19.23] You're from Vermont?

[00:01:20.58] Vermont.

[00:01:20.88] Yeah.

[00:01:21.05] Yeah. Yeah, actually, when I worked at Dartmouth, I lived just across the river in Wilder, Vermont. Because I--

[00:01:27.84] Wilder is so beautiful.

[00:01:28.60] --couldn't afford to live in Hanover.

[00:01:31.29] Nobody can afford to live in Hanover. The only people that can afford to live in Hanover are the Dartmouth students.

[00:01:35.65] Right? But I know that was awesome experience. And we're going to talk a lot about that and your experience now at NYU, which is division three school. But you also started out, before that, in Ivy League at Yale.

[00:01:49.17] Yup.

[00:01:50.16] Yeah, and you're from Massachusetts, but you didn't go to school there. So yeah, let's flashback to that. Where did you first hear about strength and conditioning or realize that you could get into this field somehow?

[00:02:04.68] So Massachusetts is, back in the day when I was growing up, I don't even know strength and conditioning existed. So when I went to school down south at FGCU, you know, dunk city--

[00:02:17.25] Oh, nice. Yeah.

[00:02:19.14] --I didn't know it existed. And I was going the route for PT and then realized PT is very boring. Like, I'm sorry, it's just not for me. It's for some people, but like working with one person for an hour and then going into the next person. I was just like, this isn't what I want to do. I like athletics, I want to work with athletes. I wanted to be in a group. And I like lifting.

[00:02:44.94] And my supervisor at the time goes, well, why aren't you looking into this field called strength and conditioning? And I go, what is this you talk about? He's like, all right, I want you to find an internship in strength and conditioning. So I started looking around, I knew I wanted to go home to Massachusetts and ended up finding Holy Cross and Jeff Oliver. And really just absolutely fell in love with it day one, walked in the room, and you just see-- I walked into a football lift, and it's just all these guys throwing around weights--

[00:03:15.99] Chilling, loud music.

[00:03:17.18] And I was like, this is it. This is what I want to do. And I just went full force forward with it. Ended up getting into Olympic lifting at Bridgewater, where I did my masters. And just fell in love with the entire sport.

[00:03:33.18] And Jeff's been there forever, right?

[00:03:35.17] Yeah, I think when I was doing my internship, I think he was there for like 13 years. And B had just left.

[00:03:41.07] Yeah. Wow, that's cool. No, and you got into Olympic lifting yourself?

[00:03:46.51] Yeah.

[00:03:48.78] To be more proficient at teaching it? Or you also really like, oh this is cool lifting style?

[00:03:53.13] It was a really cool lifting style. I knew if I really wanted to get into this field, it is probably something I needed to be would be more efficient at. And, I mean, once you put a bar fast up and over your head, come on. It's great. It's an awesome thing to do.

[00:04:09.90] That's so awesome. That's great. So yeah. And Bridgewater, I don't know if people that might not know this, but again being from the Northeast, I've heard of Bridgewater a lot. But they've had a pretty long standing, really good exercise science program, right?

[00:04:24.87] Yeah. Dr. Allen Robinson, fantastic, cannot say enough about her. Even her weight lifting team is phenomenal. She is cranking great athletes out of it.

[00:04:36.08] That's cool. And is that kind of embedding it almost in the curriculum? Where you get in there and you're now realizing, oh wait I can join this weightlifting team, or I should maybe?

[00:04:50.07] So one of the interns, when I was at Holy Cross, was like, you need to go to Bridgewater. Because it was between I was going home, and I was like, I'm gonna either do my master's at Bridgewater or Springfield. Those are the two colleges in Massachusetts that just are great for the program. And I was just like, which one do I pick? Which one do I pick? And he just kept repping Doctor Ellen Robinson. And just was like, you need to go to her. If you want to be in this field, go to Bridgewater. And now I'm just like why did no one rep Springfield? It's a phenomenal school. But at that point, it was Bridgewater. There was no anything else.

[00:05:32.01] Nice. No, that's good. Did you do some internships while you were there too? I mean, you saw the football working with Holy Cross.

[00:05:41.18] Yeah. So everyone at Bridgwater was going to schools in Boston. And I did not want to do that. I didn't want to have the same resume as everyone. And I think this is why I am where I am today. I opted to go a completely different route. And I was like, I'm going to go down. So instead of looking into Boston, I was like, if it's going to be a 45 minute commute for me to go to Boston, why not go 45 minutes south? So I was pretty much traveling from Wooster. And I was like, all right like we're in the circle is another 45 minutes out?

[00:06:17.96] And I was looking at UConn, and then I was like, well why not Yale? And I did a phone interview with them. And they just were like, if you're going to travel 45 minutes to us, we will take you. And that internship, for a semester, ended up turning into a paid internship. So I think you have to be willing to travel and put yourself out in someplace different and diversify yourself. Because if you're not willing to travel, this field is all about traveling. You're never going to be where you want to be for at least the first 10 years of your life. Like if you found a job in your hometown, I'm impressed.

[00:06:56.69] Yeah. Yeah. Allen Hedrick's the only strength coach I know. He's been coaching for 30 years and he's been in Colorado his whole time. So he's a unicorn, but that's OK.

[00:07:07.97] Maybe Jeff Oliver too.

[00:07:09.00] Yeah, yeah. So that internship, that was an unpaid internship turned into a paid internship?

[00:07:16.02] Yup.

[00:07:16.60] Yeah. So do you think you did some things like set you apart to earn yourself that-- obviously, you earned it, but is there anything special or different that you think about when you look back on it? Like, oh I wonder-- you know, that's probably why.

[00:07:30.65] I just completely immersed myself. And I mean traveling, you're there all day. So I was there at 6:00 AM, so I was waking up at 4:00 to drive an hour and a half almost to get there to park, get in there before the teams were there to-- you have to be willing to really get in there, get dirty, and put it all out the line. And if you're not really putting yourself out there, are you going to get that job? Are you going to impress your supervisors enough?

[00:08:03.28] Right. No, I think that's such a good point. And I've said it before too, but you do those things when you can, as long as you can, while you can, and then good things typically happen. So I know that some people are like, oh why am I going to work all these crazy hours and do this for nothing?

[00:08:23.95] Why am I going to clean the platforms?

[00:08:25.77] Right.

[00:08:26.51] You've got to clean it.

[00:08:27.36] Yeah. I mean, when I was at Dartmouth, I was working there, working another side job. I knew some people in Hanover, some rich people, that would have me bartend parties every once in a while. And I think I said a while ago that, people might remember that, when I went to NSCA in 2011, that's the first time in my life that I've only had one job.

[00:08:51.52] Wow.

[00:08:53.27] I did other things to do what I needed to do.

[00:08:56.10] Especially since, when you're low man on the totem pole, you're not getting paid that well. You have to be doing other things. I remember being at Yale personal training during lunch hour, and then going back and coaching my next team. And then going out at night to go and coach more athletes. Your days are long.

[00:09:16.91] And Ivy League schools, for those that don't know, typically have a ton of teams, a ton of varsity teams that all train. What was the internship like at Yale? Did you get thrown into the fire? Was it kind of like, oh I'm testing it out first?

[00:09:34.37] When I was an unpaid intern, it was you're working with all the teams. You're not writing any programs, you're just on the floor watching, coaching, and cleaning. I impressed somebody, so I ended up getting that paid internship. And that's when they were like, here's your 10 teams. You're writing everything, you are the head of their teams, you're meeting with the coaches, you're creating their schedule, go. So 10 teams, that's a lot. And the Ivy League does not have all just traditional. It's very untraditional sports, as you know.

[00:10:09.32] And you have to find out about sailing, fencing, all these sports I've never heard of. And you have to figure out what they need and to be able to train them. If you can't figure out what-- it's not football, it's not basketball, they're very different sports.

[00:10:27.07] Right. Yeah, and you were talking about-- we were talking earlier before we started rolling that, yeah these teams are coming in back to back. And so you're like switching gears, boom, constantly. Like, oh yup.

[00:10:39.55] One team can be high energy, and then the next team is low energy. And how do you change your coaching status to meet their needs? Because not every team is going to have the same chemistry. I'm high energy, but if I have to go from men's lacrosse to sailing, it's different.

[00:10:57.82] Totally. Totally. That's such a great point. And programming wise, just being able, like you said, to evaluate sports, and positions, and then write programs. I mean, your programming ability gets so much better in that setting.

[00:11:15.46] It really does. And I was honestly just talking to one of my friends the other day about it. And he's like, well what's the thing that you've grown the most in in the past two years? And I was like, honestly I used to not trust myself when it came to programming and I'd sit there and agonize and be like, is this right, should I have done this, should I have done that? And now, I'm writing programs for 15 teams. And if it wasn't for the seven years I spent in the Ivy League, I realized all of a sudden, I'm just cranking out programs. Because I'm like, nope, this is right, go with it. Done. It makes you so much more efficient. And the ability to trust yourself, just all of a sudden, you're just a different level.

[00:11:56.81] Confidence, right? Yeah. So how long were you at Yale?

[00:12:02.74] Almost three.

[00:12:03.55] Almost three? Yup. And then a job opened at Dartmouth? How did that kind of come up?

[00:12:09.01] Dartmouth kind of has, because it's a little bit more north and out in no man's land--

[00:12:16.06] Right. A little tougher for people to live. Yeah, so they're not used to that.

[00:12:18.28] Yeah. So it tends to have a little bit of extra turnover as opposed to the rest of the Ivys. And nothing wrong with it, I spent almost five years there and I loved it. But I think, because of that turnover, it opened up a position. And it's easy to move in a division, because all the coaches know each other. So [INAUDIBLE], which was my boss at Yale, was like, all right Dartmouth's opening up. He's like, talk to Bob. So I'm talking to Bob. One of my track coaches, his wife was the throw's coach and they were also talking, like, you need her, you need to bring her up there.

[00:13:00.62] So I do think as much as it's about knowing the strength coaches, sometimes it's about knowing the other coaches as well. And you can't not talk to the other people in the department. You need to be able to reach out and be friends with all the sports coaches, because they're going to help you. They're going to help network for you and push for you to get that job.

[00:13:21.87] Yeah. And so you got hired at Dartmouth. You were the first assistant, right?

[00:13:27.68] Yeah.

[00:13:28.03] And then so was this totally different teams now and you're like, oh well here we go?

[00:13:32.10] Yeah.

[00:13:32.38] Or were some a few of the same?

[00:13:33.85] A few of the same. A lot different. So at Yale, I was coaching softball, and volleyball, and a lot of the non-traditional sports. I go to Dartmouth, and all of a sudden I have men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, I have all swimming by myself, very different sports. But you came from already looking and knowing how to program for a lot of nontraditional, so you have that base of being all right let me research what this team needs. I'm going to go talk to those coaches, I'm gonna talk to the athletic trainers, and really just dive in.

[00:14:12.76] Was Jim Wilson the swimming coach when you were there?

[00:14:15.98] Yup.

[00:14:16.16] That's my guy.

[00:14:17.72] Was he there when you were there?

[00:14:18.91] Yeah.

[00:14:19.46] Man, that guy was there forever.

[00:14:22.16] He was. No, that was so much fun. He was a great coach to work with. He allowed me to do what I wanted to do. And he had his thoughts about a few exercises here and there that I had to tell him might not be the greatest.

[00:14:34.64] What other sports did you work with?

[00:14:35.90] Football, men's women's swimming, and rugby. Yeah. So that was fun.

[00:14:41.08] Men's rugby is a fantastic team there.

[00:14:41.66] It started with football. Yeah. But it was the same thing like you said. It kind of snowballed. Like I just volunteered with football, and then they paid me, and then they asked me if I wanted to do men's and women's swimming. And as you know, at a school like that where you don't have a lot of help, you might be the only one with all the 50 swimmers at 6:00 AM.

[00:15:01.07] Oh, yeah.

[00:15:01.55] Yeah.

[00:15:01.86] You're there. And interns do a fantastic job. And Spencer, right now, is doing a great job of getting interns to come to Dartmouth. And I think being in the Ivy as an intern, I think it's one of the best things you can do, because you learn so many different sports. But those people just work. You are there, and you're by yourself, and you're working teams. And it's all day, 7:00 in the morning, 7:00 at night you have teams, because there's 34 of them. There's never downtime.

[00:15:34.78] Yeah. Yeah, no and Andrea Hudy and I were talking about this yesterday and Joe, Ken, and I have talked about a lot. But that experience, like you've been alluding to the whole time, programming and coaching all these different sports teams, whether it's football or Olympic sports, makes you so much more well-rounded as a coach. And not that someone who just did a basketball strength coach internship and then stuck with basketball isn't a good strength coach.

[00:16:01.67] But the well-rounded-ness, the, like you said, having to learn how to bring your energy or whatever you want to call it to meet the needs of the people that you're working with that day is really unparalleled, I think. So I wish everybody, like we were saying, we were talking about this yesterday, and we were saying everybody should have to work in the Ivy League or where they have to get--

[00:16:22.67] Just one internship. Just one semester, go to the Ivys. It will open your eyes.

[00:16:28.10] Yeah, well and like you said before too, I think the same thing about football. I think the experience working with football, and again, I don't train football anymore, was probably one of the best strength coaching experiences that I've ever had. Because of the sheer amount of people that you have to manage, the things that are happening, it's fast paced. It made me better 100%.

[00:16:54.32] I agree.

[00:16:57.35] So Dartmouth, then now you're a head strength coach all on your own. What was that transition like? And now you're going from the Ivys to Division III, also going from a nice, little, small, beautiful town to the big city.

[00:17:18.77] I have literally only traveled and gone from one extreme to the next. There has never been like, oh you're going from one city to another city. No, you're going from rural, no man to massive city, which was very eye opening. Because for almost four years in Hanover to the Big Apple, there is nothing different than that. Going from the Ivy League Division I to Division III, completely different.

[00:17:53.21] And it's had its days, it's not easy being a head strength and conditioning coach on your own is not easy. But I think the Ivy League and having all that, the 10 teams, the 15 teams where you're by yourself and you're grinding it out in the Ivy League is what prepared me to do this position at NYU.

[00:18:13.96] Yeah. Is it harder or not? I mean, maybe that's the right wording, but being a young female too now as a head strength coach.

[00:18:24.01] Oh, yeah. I mean, you definitely get the looks. Like, you're a head strength and conditioning coach? Yeah. Like, you're by yourself? Yeah. So you coach all the teams? You work with the men's teams too? Yes, I have them all.

[00:18:41.86] Everybody.

[00:18:43.42] So, I mean, it is breaking a lot of barriers. And I don't think people thought I would have been where I am now. I didn't even know I was going to be here. It's been a very interesting 10 years in my profession. And if someone had asked me 10 years ago where I saw myself, I knew I wanted to be a head strength and conditioning coach, I just didn't think it was going to happen at 10 years. I was like, 15 years, yeah. Probably 20 years. Oh no, I got there before 10 years and it's been really exciting to see that progression and the growth that I've had as a person.

[00:19:19.87] Nice. That's great. Well, and I know NYU is a little bit unique too. So maybe talk about some of your challenges in a D3 setting. But as well as in the Big Apple in a school like NYU.

[00:19:34.57] So NYU kind of is taking over the entire city. So we have one building and nobody has a home court advantage pretty much. Swimming is the only team that has a home court advantage, because the pool is in our building. Everybody else is traveling like an hour to a practice there, like this and that. So the scheduling aspect of trying to get kids into the weight room, and we have 23 sports I think, is very interesting. And then you're by yourself.

[00:20:06.91] I'm lucky enough to have two assistants that give me roughly 10 hours a week, not a day, a week. So I do a little bit of a block scheduling, which helps me have a work life balance. But trying to get the teams in, and it's all day, teams are overlapping on a half hour, you only get them in there for an hour and you're pushing them out and trying to make sure that your programming has flow so that when one team is on the platform the other team is not on the platform. And not to say you're pushing them out the door at the end of the hour, but you try to be very efficient with your programming and their time. Because they are busy, and they have to travel, and they have to get to class, and they're stressed out because they're in class at NYU. So it's tough, I mean, but coming from the Ivy League, I've already seen it.

[00:21:02.89] Yeah. Yeah, you talk about high academic pressure versus-- yeah. So you're bringing teams in on the hour every hour or is it quicker than that? Is it a half hour and you know these guys are moving to this section and you can get these other guys started?

[00:21:18.22] It depends on the size of the team. So like baseball and swimming obviously have to be by themselves, because they have about 30, 35 kids there on the team. So they have to be in the weight room by themselves. If i have smaller teams, I can usually fit two teams. I'm very, very lucky that I have a very nice facility. And I think it rivals some D1 facilities and I'm a D3 school. So with 11 platforms, I can get some teams in there.

[00:21:51.16] So we try to almost start them-- some teams start on the half hour, some teams start at the hour. But you get them in, you get them through their warm up, get the first team onto the platform. When the first team is midway through their A block, the next team might be coming in. So it's hard to manage when you're thinking about it, but like once you're in it you're like oh, this works keep it going.

[00:22:20.16] That's awesome. Do you have exercise science there at the school?

[00:22:26.23] We have a PT program, so I've been trying to utilize them. So we have student workers, and the student workers actually have a very nice role. And I've been trying to handpick them from the teams. So I have a couple of baseball players, I have a couple soccer players, and I have them out on the platforms almost coaching like interns. But they are not interns. They have no interest in being strength and conditioning coaches.

[00:22:56.23] But I use them, and the kids are now, like all the student athletes, are starting to ask them for help so I can maybe get something done. Like maybe write a program in the middle of the day. But one of them is a PT student and she is phenomenal. And she has her CSCS, because that's part of the program for them. By the end of the first year, they have to have their CSCS. So when she reached out to me, I was like, wait I can utilize this.

[00:23:28.93] You can be a supervisor.

[00:23:30.45] I was like, all right, how can I utilize this more? How can I utilize this program? So I've been really, this summer, trying to reach out to our PT program and get them more involved with us in the strength and conditioning department so that I can get more help. Because with one person, there's just not enough help. You need to have more eyes on all of these athletes.

[00:23:55.38] What was the biggest difference or maybe challenge coming from Dartmouth to NYU?

[00:24:05.14] Being by myself. It's honestly very lonely. You don't have anybody to bounce ideas off of. I went from having an office with four people in it and another office with another two people in it and all of a sudden you're by yourself in a weight room with just 20-year-old athletes, like 20-year-old kids. And the athletic trainers are close, their office is right next to me, but they're not going to talk strength and conditioning with me. They're talking about injuries and how to keep someone healthy. And I'm like, I just want to talk about lifting weights. So not having someone to bounce ideas off of every day is really almost heartbreaking, because you're like, who am I going to talk to all day?

[00:24:55.99] How has that made you adapt to how you network and talk shop with people?

[00:25:02.68] I literally allow any single human that wants to come through-- I'm like, yeah, yeah come on in.

[00:25:09.61] If you're listening to this and you're near New York City--

[00:25:12.37] Yeah. Come to NYU, talk shop with me, I would greatly appreciate it. I reach out, I do a lot of emails, I always am trying to contact my old friends that I worked with like, what are you doing? And I've been really lucky. A lot of them have now started becoming head coaches. Like we were talking about earlier, they're cranking out coaches and now all of them are Division I coaches. I think it's really nice to see.

[00:25:40.79] Yeah, that's a really good point too. And do you have pretty good support for continuing education from your department standpoint too?

[00:25:51.16] Yes and no. It was a little bit tough for me to get here this year. They give us continuing education, and they'll allow us to do it, I just don't think that NYU has realized that we have to do continuing ed. They're willing to give you all the money in the world to do some stuff, and then they're pulling back on other things-- But it has nothing to do with them not wanting us to stay up to date. I just think that it's almost they don't realize that we need these CEUs to do our job.

[00:26:27.83] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So partially just educating the right people too. Do you have any tips or suggestions for other D3 coaches or maybe people that are thinking about going to that setting or found themselves as a new head coach like you have, that you've done?

[00:26:49.96] Keep the door open. Don't ever turn people away, continually talk to people, see what they're doing. Reaching out has been the best thing for me. Three years ago, I came to this conference and I don't think I knew anybody. I was forcing people to be my friend to talk to people. And here I am, three years later on the NSCA Coaching Podcast. You have to want to talk to people, to learn, and just continuously try to like reach out to people.

[00:27:22.84] And tell people what you're doing, because you're doing great stuff. So you can probably help a lot of other people who are in similar settings.

[00:27:32.65] Yeah, I mean, I remember when I started, everyone was like, no this is secret. I don't want you to know what I'm doing on this program. No, put it out there. Ask other people what they're doing with their programs. If you have a weird sport that you're not sure about, go and find someone who does. Find the expert in it. I remember when I had sailing, I was like, I don't know what sailing is doing. And I reached out to one of the other Ivys to be like, all right, you have sailing, what are you doing with them? Don't be nervous to do that. Reach out. People are willing to talk to you to tell you what they're doing.

[00:28:15.03] Yeah, no, I think that's, again, that's an underlying factor too of these events. Especially the NSCA events that I've been to, and obviously I've been to a lot. But the people I met, and the people were so open and willing to help you no matter what that looked like. Whether it was helping with a program or a sport that you never worked with, or telling you to come meet them for a drink or go to the bar and hang out while you're talking shop and just learning so much more.

[00:28:44.80] And I think, as a female, it's tough, because it is a male dominated field. And you don't want to come across like, I'm going to ask you a question about something that I don't know about. And we automatically clam up, because we're like, you're going to judge me. They're not going to judge you. If you want knowledge, go out and find it.

[00:29:03.27] Yeah. Is there anything specifically that you would-- advice you would give to the females in the field or wanting to get into the field?

[00:29:11.41] I mean, besides networking, and really just trusting your gut, and talking to people? Mm, let's see. 10 years back, what would I wish I would have known? I don't know.

[00:29:33.19] Yeah.

[00:29:33.46] I feel like--

[00:29:34.36] Well, you just teed up a pretty good one there about networking and not being afraid to ask questions. Yeah.

[00:29:41.96] Yeah.

[00:29:42.68] People are going to find, and again, I've said this to you I think. Andrea and I talked about it yesterday, so people have heard that podcast too. But obviously, you look at the men's soccer national team and women's soccer national team, so we've obviously got some clear issues with the way people are paid. But a great strength coach is a great strength coach, right?

[00:30:07.97] Yes.

[00:30:08.51] And so if you're excellent at your job, it shouldn't matter.

[00:30:11.96] No.

[00:30:12.44] Yeah. And I mean, that was for me, when I was at Dartmouth, Caitlin Sweeney was in charge of football. And she was my boss, I mean, Bob was our boss. Bob Miller is who we were referring to earlier and was the director of Olympic sports. But someone else was generally the head of football. And she was when I was there.

[00:30:31.84] And I mean, she was one of the first females to take over football.

[00:30:35.69] Be in charge of football. Yeah. So it was never, never I knew more, I think, had female coaches than I did men at that point in my career. So it was just the way that it came up. Yeah.

[00:30:50.84] That's impressive.

[00:30:51.56] Yeah and she owned that place, man. Those dudes were scared of her. It was great.

[00:30:55.43] I heard stories about Caitlin when I got there. She's at Notre Dame now?

[00:31:01.34] West Virginia now. She just left Notre Dame. Yeah.

[00:31:03.97] Good for her.

[00:31:04.52] Yep. She moved up. I think she's like associate something for strength and conditioning. So hopefully she's listening. Good job, Caitlin. Appreciate the mentorship. No, this has been great. I know a lot of people are going to have questions and want to reach out to you. Do you want to throw any of your social media out there? What's the best way they connect with you?

[00:31:26.18] You can find me on NYU_Strength on Instagram. There's also the same thing on Facebook. Please reach out to me. You can always find me on my email address, which is krf2@nyu.edu. Please reach out if you're in New York, 100 percent come through.

[00:31:47.60] Come see her.

[00:31:48.56] And I would very much appreciate it.

[00:31:50.99] She's looking for people to talk to, so get over there to NYU. Thanks again for being on the show.

[00:31:56.57] Thank you.

[00:31:56.78] It was super great. It's always good seeing you. And we got one more day of a conference here and all the coaches are speaking today. So we're looking forward to it.

[00:32:05.18] I am too. Very excited to go and see Andrea Hudy.

[00:32:07.98] Yes.

[00:32:08.42] Yes.

[00:32:09.12] Nice. Well thanks again. As always, thanks to our partners in crime, Sorinex exercise equipment that support the podcast and everything we do at the NSCA. We couldn't do it without them, and we couldn't do it without all of you guys. So we appreciate everyone who listens to this podcast. And again, make sure that you're signing up ahead of time, subscribe, go on iTunes or Google Play, or wherever you listen to the podcast, give us a review if you like it, if you don't, feel free not to. Just kidding. Anyway, thanks to everyone for listening.

[00:32:41.76] Thanks guys.

[00:32:42.34] Thanks Kayleigh.

[00:32:44.00] You often hear these podcasts recorded at an NSCA conferences and events, why not join us at the next one? You can get all the details on upcoming events at NSCA.com/events.

[00:32:55.02] This was the NSCA 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 and join us next time.

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