Episode 56 - Sean Carlson
“My job is to protect what we already have and what I sold the guys in our locker room. If I go and recruit a kid that wants a lifestyle that's completely opposite of that, I'm doing those guys in the locker room and injustice because I'm bringing in a poison.”
Sean Carlson’s approach to coaching comes from the fear of being out worked and not being good. He had this mentality at North Central College running 120 mile weeks as a Sophomore that ended with a team finish of 16th place. His perspective of what constitutes hard worked was shaped during his time at North Central when that 16th place team eventually won the National Title 2 years later. He has followed a similar trajectory leading the Notre Dame Cross Country team from a 14th place regional finish to a National Runner Up in 5 years.
Sean knew he wanted to be a Coach but having daily wisdom from Al Carius was a helpful catalyst to know he was heading in the right direction. Coach Carlson credits the rise of the Notre Dame distance team to a strong team culture, which he learned from Al Carius. Sean has worked tirelessly to get the team to be at a point where they are doing all the small things correctly, and are running at Notre Dame for the right reasons. He has even gone to recruited kids that would be a better fit for the team, rather than take the fastest kid available.
You can listen to Al Carius’ episode here: https://www.d3glorydays.com/podcast/episode-22-al-carius
We mentioned the documentary, ‘16 2 1’ in our conversation with Al. It’s a documentary made by @NCCMensXCTF alumnus, RJ McNichols. It highlights the rise and fall from 2005-2011. He’s offering our listeners 50% off if you follow this link: https://vimeo.com/r/2Tcn/WHJqaGw0WG
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Quotes
“Happiness is this fleeting feeling. I think anybody that thinks happiness is a permanent state is miserable.”
“I always think that the best coaches are typically the ones that fail rather the ones that had this yellow brick road to success because that's the exception, not the rule. And you want to coach to the rule or the exception”
“Some people thrive off of a little bit of that fear and. To be honest, I live in fear every day of not being good. And I think that's what allows me to push Notre Dame and keep us moving up in the landscape of Division 1”
“Al is the art of coaching, like that's the best way to describe him. He is not the X's and O's of coaching, ge is the art of coaching.”
“People show their insecurity by doing too much, by overdoing stuff as opposed to being rational.”
“I think having a real relationship built on real things is more important than me blowing air into your balloon and then having it deflate.”
