Coaches · Podcast

Two Rival Schools, One Conversation

Tom Bendt, longtime Oregon athletic director, on the ambassador program he built with a rival school’s AD, the summits that followed, and why everybody — including the AD — needs to be coached.

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Proactive Coaching Podcast · The Best Coaches You’ve Never Heard Of

A Proactive Coaching podcast interview with Tom Bendt, longtime Oregon high school athletic director (Aloha High School, Beaverton) and former coach, hosted by Bruce Brown. Topics covered: the "ambassador program" he and Sunset High School AD Pete Lukach built between two rival schools to bring coaches together around their why, the leadership summits they now run for athletic directors across Oregon, the shortage of quality coaches and the decline of the career teacher/coach, building culture as an athletic director, the trend toward combined AD/assistant principal roles, the qualities of great athletic directors (lifelong learners with a teachable spirit), why everybody needs to be coached, feedback as a cultural norm, his sabbatical spent reading and writing, his future book on coaching coaches, his "I'm So Busy" blog, and how to reach him.

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