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In this podcast, we are chatting to high school coaches about coaching high school sports.

I talked to a few coaches who have decided to change their coaching path by either stepping down or transitioning their careers. I think that the crossroad for these coaches will give you different perspectives on what it takes to coach at this level.

Mark Stadem

We start the podcast with Mark Stadem of Brandon Valley, a 22-year coaching veteran of girls basketball, who is stepping down as their head coach. This spring, they brought home a state title. Then he revealed after the season that the championship game would be his last game as a head coach, though he'll continue as a football assistant and be involved with the students. He gets into the passion to coach, the reasons why he still loves coaching, what he remembers about being the son of a three-sport coach growing up, and why sometimes losing is not bad.

Brian Allmendinger

Next up is Brian Allmendinger, the three-time state champ at Gregory in 11 years of head coaching. He's decided to step down from head coaching and has accepted an assistant role in Milbank. In this conversation, he gets into the reasoning why he's making the change, and we find out one of the many things that makes Brian unique is his use of psychology to coach. He gets deep into the philosophical strategy he uses to coach and why he's reflected on his own life and made some life adjustments.

Chris Fechner

Finally, we round out the show with Chris Fechner, who just capped off a state championship season in boys Class A Basketball with the Tea Area Titans. Chris decided before the season started that this would be his last year at Tea. He'll be moving to Iowa to re-join his family. He'll get a lot more into that and what it takes to be a high school coach in today's environment.