The Amy Eagan Podcast

Gary (00:00)
Welcome to the Amy Egan podcast, where each week, Lindenwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan talks women's basketball and much, much more. We all talk about past games during the season, but really Amy, during the spring off season, we talk about a lot of things that are just generally related to basketball and not the games themselves, because obviously those are many months away. And first of all, welcome.

Amy Eagan (00:24)
Thank you. I'm excited to be here as always and having the opportunity to share and grow and talk about maybe some things besides X's nose in the off season. I think that's always fun.

Gary (00:35)
Okay, so the Ohio Valley Conference, of course, of which Linda Wood is a member, just recently announced a new strategic plan. Are you able to share any of those plans or kind of give us a feel for what that looks like?

Amy Eagan (00:47)
Yeah, so, you know, I think, you know, I'm headed actually down to our OVC meetings today, later today in Nashville, and we'll sit, have the opportunity to sit and talk a lot as coaches and with some administration about, you know, our student athletes and our programs and.

how we can continue to grow the OVC in Division I and continue to grow our programs within the OVC. So I'm really excited about that, but this initiative that the OVC put out for some strategic growth within the OVC has a lot to do on student -athlete benefits and how we can continue to provide benefits to student -athletes to help programs grow and compete and be competitive.

And also it also has some stuff to do with scheduling with a lot more scheduling, a lot more good non -conference division one home games and so forth with it. So I'm really excited. I think the OVC is definitely dedicated to improving our student athlete experience to continuing to make us more competitive within the NCAA. And I think they're showing that by releasing some of the strategic growth announcements.

Gary (02:01)
So there's a new sport in town, it's called the Portal. And of course, it applies to all, I think all college sports. And I'm not.

Amy Eagan (02:04)
It's definitely a sport. I'm down here right now, every day.

Gary (02:14)
particularly the nuance in the portal rules. But I want to give you a scenario. You're a coach, you've been successful for a long time, and there are, I'm guessing, Amy, countless families that have already made the decision for this year and maybe thinking about that decision down the road. Let me give you a scenario. And I want you to kind of give that guidance from your historical experience as a long -term basketball coach and now a Division I head basketball coach.

if not just to future Lyndon Woods students and athletes, maybe to others who might listen to this podcast. So here's the fictional scenario. This family's child is a solid basketball player. They're good enough to be a strong contributor to a D1 team, but probably not good enough to start or even get enough playing time based on what they like. They are way above average academically, but probably not top 50, not Harvard, not Yale, not

Michigan, those kind of places. It's the end of a season, whatever season that may be. I know you focus on basketball and a portal decision is needed to go into it or not. Give these poor folks some guidance because I know it's got to be tough.

Amy Eagan (03:24)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think it is really, really tough, especially in the world we live in with, I think kids think it's pretty normal to just go into the portal every year and find a new place. But to some of us old folks over here that have been in coaching for a while, we take it a little bit harder and we see some things that maybe it's harder for us to deal with.

than kids just going into the portal. But I think the biggest thing is kind of even the recruiting trail and the things we talk about with kids is really just continuing to figure out what you want out of your experience. I think there are some situations where going into the portal is a really good thing for some kids if they're not getting out of their experience what that is. Maybe like you mentioned or said maybe they're at a university that they don't feel like.

is fitting their academic needs for what they want academically, or maybe they feel like they need to go somewhere else so that they can be challenged more on the court. I think it just depends on the kid, but I think I would hope that every kid would really take a deep dive into what they really want out of their experience and what that looks like, because I don't think the grass is always greener.

I don't believe those things. I think you have to make sure that when you're looking at another school or another program that you really make sure that they have what you're looking for that's gonna make you happy. And that's different for every kid. In the situation you said and managed, if I thought that kid can contribute to us and can continue to grow in our program, I would challenge them to come back and...

and really work to take that next step in our program. Academically, I would challenge them, hey, let's see if there's something in St. Charles or St. Louis that we can grow your resume and continue to challenge you academically. So I think there's things coaches can do as well if they want to try to keep the kid at their institution. But I think it's just a hard thing for student athletes these days. And I think, like I said, a lot of them think it's pretty normal.

But to some of us that have been in coaching, it doesn't seem as normal maybe. But we're growing with the times as a staff and we've got to be able to understand some of that and help guide kids as much as we can.

Gary (05:58)
And the NCAA has had that long running advertisement. Well, it says something to the fat coach that 99 % of all NCAA student athletes end up as a professional in something else. And the reason for my comment is it's really the academic piece is what's going to serve these children for 40 years. It's a sports piece that is for four years. Is there a way, this is a rhetorical question, feel free to pass on if you want, where parents can help their children recognize

it's the academic piece and the sports while important is supplemental.

Amy Eagan (06:33)
Yeah, you know, I think it's hard to do with young kids. You know, I think even when we have freshmen on campus, us continuously getting them to understand how important their freshman year academics are for their senior year, or if they want to get into a grad program or anything like that, how important it is to do that from the beginning. I think it's hard. You know, I think that, you know, every kid's different with that and every family's different with that. But, you know, one of the things I tell,

all the families and kids that sit down with me when they're in my office is that at some point basketball is going to come to an end in your life. You know that may mean that sometimes it's after they go overseas and play you know or or sometimes it's after four years. I mean you just never know but at some point it's going to come to an end in your life and

How are you, what are you doing to prepare for that next step? And that's what we really tried to do throughout their time here is prepare them for that next step with stuff, because I do think it's really important. I tell them, you know, we want them to pick careers and to make lots of money and then to, you know, never forget to donate back, right, Erie? That's the most important thing. So, you know, we kind of joke about that, but it is real life stuff, you know. Basketball does come to an end and...

and we need them to be prepared to be able to get a job and to lead a successful life in those areas. So I do think it's important. Sometimes it's hard to see for an 18 year old. And then sometimes it's hard to see with parents, but I think it is important. And I think we really try to strive to help them achieve some things so that they are ready for that.

Gary (08:16)
So I saw a Twitter post last night and I have not gotten around to calling it X yet. So a Twitter slash X post. You had a chance to see an interesting experience in the hospital this past week. Can you share that?

Amy Eagan (08:28)
Oh, it was so cool. You know, we went down to me and then there was another student from campus and then one of our freshman players who's a pre -med major, Alyssa Nielsen went down and toured Barnes Jewish Medical Laboratory, which is one of the top medical laboratories in the nation. And I probably could have spent all day there because I was probably in awe the whole time that we were there.

I mean, just such a cool experience. I think, you know, when you can give your players something, an experience like that where, you know, we walked in and I mean, you know, for me, even myself, I'm a nerd at heart, you know, I went to Truman State. So I am a nerd at heart and I love that kind of stuff. But it is just amazing to me how many different career paths and opportunities are out there that kids don't know about. And I think, you know, for, for we call her Lou, but Alyssa,

for Lou even stepping in there and being able to say, hey, if I don't exactly want to go and be a doctor, look at all these awesome opportunities there are to do other things within the medical field. I don't think a lot of kids know that or realize those things, but I think it did open her eyes to some possible different career paths if she would choose to do that. And I think that's the biggest thing is presenting opportunities for our student athletes.

that maybe they didn't know about that can maybe trigger something that that they want to be passionate about and have a career in. You know, I talk about my my youngest sister, her husband is a profusionist. And until she met this guy, I had never heard of what a profusionist was. And so, you know, it's crazy. Like, there's just so many, I think, opportunities, whether it's within the medical field or or whatever that is that.

you just don't know about until you have the opportunity to tour in that. But it was such a cool tour and I'm so appreciative of the people down there that took the time to speak with our student athletes and to explain to them even like what the job looks like. Like, hey, you're a visionary person. This might be a field you're interested in. I don't think kids get enough of that early in their career. And I think for Lou and then hopefully for some of our future pre -med kids, it's gonna be really, really beneficial for them.

Gary (10:53)
So this is something you'd like to be able to do at least annually, if not more often, for just after. OK.

Amy Eagan (10:58)
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I think, I mean, I think it would be very, very beneficial for anybody. You know, even on campus, if you're looking at any kind of med field to see something like that, because I know even talking with everyone down there, there's still a need for a lot of, you know, a lot of people in those areas. And there's so many different areas. It was amazing just to see how many different areas there were. They're in need of people. And I think it's something that,

Again, if kids don't know about those opportunities, they don't even look into those fields.

Gary (11:35)
So you are, Coach, you're officially past the one year mark. I've asked you this question a couple of times over the past year, but now you're officially past it. Now you've got to be looking ahead to year two. How does your program grow in year two from year one?

Amy Eagan (11:51)
Yeah, well, you know, we'll spend a lot of May and preparing for that next step in our program. I mean, we're still recruiting. We still need two kids for this upcoming year. So we're still working really, really hard on that. And once we can hopefully get our roster solidified, I'll feel a lot better about that, where we can really start to look to move on. But, you know, our kids will be back in June. So they're leaving this week and then they'll be back in June. So.

You know, we've really already started looking at some things for June workouts and stuff that we need to get to to help us. I think, you know, when you look at year two, our program grows majorly in one area, and that's experience. You know, whether that's us as a staff being at Linda Wood now for a year and having that all that experience. And, you know, it's just the little things sometimes you don't realize that.

You just learn how you have to do the paperwork and how you have to do things behind the scenes with scheduling in the gym and that where now we're just so much more comfortable with all those kind of things. And then you look at the experience that now all of our young kids are now sophomores or juniors, you know, in our program with stuff. So they now know what they're doing. They now know expectations. They now know how to work.

I think just that having that experience is going to be so, so beneficial for us when it comes to June. I think they can really take in the new kids and really just, you know, bring them into our program and help with some of that transition where last year, nobody knew, you know, what we were doing. So I would say in those areas, I think we've got, you know, three commitments already for this next class and three really, really good kids are going to contribute to us immediately. They're super talented. So.

I'm really excited about those three already and adding them in. I think we've already gotten a lot better with stuff.

Gary (13:50)
Good. And then you and I have talked about this previously and during the summer months, we'd like to invite guests, really other high school coaches probably, maybe athletic directors, maybe folks from inside of Lindenwood. Tell us about what kind of folks you're going to be reaching out to invite to join you for the summer series of the Amy E.

Amy Eagan (13:58)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, I think we're going to try to reach out to a lot of different people and different occupations within women's basketball. You know, I anticipate at some point we'll probably even have on maybe our strength and conditioning coach just so people can see some different ideas and different things of what he does. I think, you know, I'd like to have on our next guest. I'm hoping it's going to be one of my good friends that's at a junior college so we can give some insight into.

uh... junior college and what that looks like for steven division one uh... and then some more high school i think it's really neat when you can share just different experiences whether it's high school coaches uh... division three uh... division two you know junior colleges i mentioned i think it's really neat because you know basketball is basketball and i think uh... anytime you can share different ways that you do things or uh... explore different ways that we do things i think it helps grow the game and that's really what's about us

continuously growing the game, continuously growing women's basketball. Those things are happening in a real big level right now. And so we want to contribute to that as much as we can.

Gary (15:20)
And then finally, Amy, a couple of weeks ago, Lindenwood hosted an event they called Pickleball with the President. And for those that don't know, Lindenwood has 12 fabulous, lighted, dedicated pickleball courts on campus and 30 teams of about 60 students. It was a king of the court kind of format. And Amy, you played with a faculty member and the president of the university played with, I think, a staff member. Tell us about that event, what you had the chance to do, the kind of students you had a chance to meet.

Amy Eagan (15:51)
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's pretty cool when President Porter wants to get out and spend some time with the students. And I obviously wasn't all student athletes. It was just students that want to play pickleball. And I think he is truly invested in giving everybody a great experience. And if you see him, which you do a lot on campus, you see him a lot walking through practice, or you see him a lot walking on campus, or he comes by the offices and that, he's really involved in not just

athletics but the overall campus and helping everybody continue to grow and making this into something really really special. So I think it's pretty cool to see him out there amongst the students and talking with them and giving them some insight and you know I think he would tell you that you know he he's pretty competitive if you can't tell so I think that that helps us on the athletic side but he loves to get out and get to know them.

and see kind of their experience here through their eyes by asking them questions. And I just think that's really important. I mean, that was one thing when I was looking at this job that really intrigued me about this job and really made me want to come here is because of how he presented it to me, his investment in it. And I think people ask me all the time, how was your first year? And I think everything that we talked about, whether it's Jason Coomer or him,

has come to light and I'm really excited about that. So I think when you look at our program, we still have a long ways to go in regards to continuing to develop within division one, but we're getting there and we're taking some steps in the right direction with stuff. So that's really exciting, but he's a very, very big part of why that's happening.

Gary (17:41)
And I guess as I wrap this up, if you're a high school coach or athletic director listening to this and you'd like to have your first or another podcast experience, reach out to Coach Egan. It's A .Egan, A -E -A -G -A -N at Lyndonwood .edu. Say you'd like to be a star on her podcast. I'm sure Amy will follow up promptly and we'll certainly find a time to get you slotted in. During the non -season months, we're doing it about every other month. So we've got plenty of slots to fill. So reach out and we've come to the end of this podcast episode.

with Lyndenwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan. We'll look forward to seeing you and having you join our podcast soon.