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Today I’m happy to bring you an episode about youth coaching with George Andriopoulos. George has coached basketball and flag football and serves as Commissioner of Basketball for the Police Activity League.
In his day job, George is a distinguished leader renowned for his transformative impact across management consulting, pharmaceutical, and non-profit sectors. He founded the boutique consulting firm Launchpad Five One Six, "The Launchcast" podcast, and has expanded into a virtual leadership coaching division.
George has delivered keynote addresses globally and delivered in three TEDx talks. In 2022, he co-founded SPEAK, a global public speaking platform that amplifies voices worldwide through live events and streaming media.
In this episode, we discuss:
- George’s lifelong interest in sports and how he got started with coaching
- What young athletes are looking for in a community sports program
- Memorable stories from coaching
- What he focuses on with supporting young athletes
- Growth of flag football
- Balancing business and involvement in other activities
- Using earned perspective to benefit coaching
Connect with George:
- https://www.instagram.com/launchpadceo
- http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeandriopoulos
- http://www.twitter.com/launchpadceo
- https://www.tiktok.com/@launchpadceo
- https://georgeandriopoulos.com
About the host
Ross Romano is co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and also hosts The Authority Podcast. He began his career in the pro sports industry before becoming a leading communications, marketing, and management expert working with education companies. He is founder and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success.
Creators & Guests
Host
What is Sideline Sessions?
Designed for coaches, parents and other stakeholders in the world of youth, scholastic, and amateur sports, this show brings you interviews with leaders at the highest levels of their respective sports.
Hear from coaches and performance experts with experience in the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Olympics, and NCAA Division-I, plus those who run elite youth programs, successful high school teams, and more. Hear about their motivations, philosophies, and strategies for success, and take away actionable insights to support the athletes in your life.
Ross Romano: [00:00:00] Welcome in everybody to another episode here of Sideline Sessions on the Be Podcast Network. Thanks as always for being with us. Excited to bring you another great conversation where we're going to talk about youth coaching across a couple of different [00:01:00] sports and the landscape there. And for any of you who are in the role of youth coaches or parents that have.
Your job and other endeavors and community involvement and all those things. How do you balance it all? How do you work with the athletes that are in your care about what their goals are, helping them set those goals to work toward them and balance and kind of just have all those endeavors, right, going in the right direction.
So my guest today is George Andriopoulos. George is a distinguished leader who's renowned for his transformative impact across management consulting, pharmaceutical, and non profit sectors. He founded a boutique consulting firm called Launchpad 516. There's also the Launchcast podcast and he has expanded that into a virtual leadership coaching division.
George has delivered keynote addresses globally. He's done three TED Talks, TEDx Talks, and in 2022, he co founded Speak, which is a global public speaking platform that amplifies voices worldwide through live events and streaming media. [00:02:00] In the coaching sphere, he has coached basketball and flag football, and he served as the Commissioner of Basketball for the Police Activity League.
George, welcome to the show.
George Andriopoulos: Thanks for us. Happy to be here, buddy.
Ross Romano: But let's start with just a little bit of your background your interest in sports. You know, what kind of, were you an athlete in your day? How did you get interested in getting involved in the various ways that you are?
George Andriopoulos: Yeah, for sure. So, you know, for me, sports has always been a thing. I grew up here in New York. I'm from Queens, New York originally. So I guess it kind of started with baseball and the Mets. I lived five minutes away from Shea Stadium at the time. But my dad, who's a Greek immigrant that came here in the late sixties.
He was always just a lifer in terms of being a fan of the New York Jets in football and the New York Knicks in basketball. He himself was a pro soccer player in Greece for a couple of years before he came here. But but here in the United States, he was like football and basketball all the way.
And I [00:03:00] guess that's where I got that. Cause those are my two favorite sports to watch. He. You know, hearing stories from him as a kid, you know, you watch games with your dad as a kid when you're like way too young to understand it again. And sometimes it's boring. Sometimes it's not, it's exciting.
But he would tell me stories about like, he was at the Knicks championship game in 1969, game seven, Willis Reed limped onto the court after halftime, like you hear stories like this, and then the Knicks win and you're like, How could you not love sports, right? So I guess that's where my love of sports came from.
I played you know, football throughout my youth. And really funny enough, my favorite sport is probably basketball, but I didn't really start playing basketball until end of high school, beginning of college, even like, recreationally. And I got so into it as a young adult and then an adult, and I've been playing myself in, you know, adult leagues for years and years.
So, where I should have been skill wise, probably as a teenager, I didn't get there until I was like in my thirties. But yeah, man [00:04:00] that's kind of my sports journey. You know, watching my dad You know, in his love of sports, finally, at some point, my youth gave me, you know, the bandwidth, I guess, to watch it myself and actually try and care.
And for me, it was in the late 80s, probably like 88. 89 turning on the TV one day and seeing Michael Jordan play and that was it. I was hooked. I personally became a Chicago Bulls fan from that day on. And and that's probably why basketball has become my favorite sport. (ad here)
Ross Romano: Got it. Yeah. I, well, maybe we should end the episode now. I mean, as a, you know, Phillies and Sixers fan here. Last time I had a Knicks fan on, it was before we knew about the playoff series that was going to happen last year, but maybe we'll get payback. Awesome. So yeah, so you had this lifelong love of sports, right.
And your involvement at what point, you know, when did you start to get involved with Coaching and how did [00:05:00] you end up determining the, these sports? I mean, basketball being one of them, obviously you've talked about, you know, your personal love for that sport, but how did that come about? And how did you decide that you wanted to take that step?
That's one of the things I think that comes up from time to time on the show with people from various perspectives is the dynamics that, are happening right now in e sports between parents and, you know, and that it's a lot of times hard to find parents who really want to coach because of all the headaches.
That are involved, but but for those who really love the sports, right, and want to make sure that the kids have a great experience with it it can be really rewarding if you find the right way to go about it. The
George Andriopoulos: Sure. Yeah, so I got into it, honestly It was a matter of, I kind of needed to for involvement purposes. My I have four kids now. Two, my two older kids were from my first marriage. I got divorced when they were really young, [00:06:00] probably three and one and a half. And so as a dad that, I didn't want to be a divorce dad.
I just wanted to be a dad and be there for every second of every single thing. You know, coaching the teams was a way to do that. Right? To make sure not only that I'm there, but that I'm involved and engaged. And that's kind of how it started with, you know, my, my now 16 year old daughter.
starting sports and you know, and she wasn't a big sports kid. She played sporadically, but coaching her basketball team in kindergarten, my son playing soccer when he's three and kind of assistant coaching there. And then once he got into kindergarten, he has played all the way through basketball since kindergarten up until ninth grade now.
And she started Flag Football. In third grade, he started Flag Football, so it was like a mix of the two of them growing up, just kind of either assistant coaching or coaching but then as it got, you know, further along, I'm a big community guy, we [00:07:00] live in a small community here in Long Island that I happen to have grown up in and that means a lot to me.
Farmingdale, New York a lot of pride in this town, a lot of sports pride in our town and having played for the teams here as a youth you know, and for the youth teams and the junior high school and the high school teams you know, it meant a lot to me to kind of continue, you know, in that legacy.
And so when my kids started playing, I started getting more involved, not just on the coaching side, but the organizational side and wanted to do, to be one of the guys that helped to continue the legacy of these sports in our town. So that's kind of how it started. And, you know, you're involved, excuse me, you're involved in an activity and all of a sudden they're like, Hey, you know, do you want to also direct?
One of these grade levels for basketball and, oh, do you want to direct two grade levels to, you know, here I am 11 years after I started coaching and I'm Commissioner of Basketball for the Police Activity League here in Farmingdale. So, [00:08:00] that's kind of how the genesis of all of it happened.
Ross Romano: pursuit of power now.
George Andriopoulos: Yeah.
Ross Romano: So the young.
George Andriopoulos: Volunteer Power.
Ross Romano: So, with the teams that you've worked with and the organizations that you've coached in and served in a various capacities, what are the young athletes there? Typically looking for looking to get out of it, right? What's the relative level of competition? What's the reason for involvement?
I think that gives good context to our listeners. Obviously, oftentimes we, you know, we speak with coaches that are at Division 1 college level or Olympics, right? And it's obvious. You know, implied, I guess, what a lot of the athletes there are looking to achieve. But I think with our young athletes, there's a whole wide range of reasons to get involved in sports.
And a lot of good ones that go beyond, you know, You know, attempting to be a professional, although every now and then I'm sure some really good ones come along, but yeah what are they looking for when you're [00:09:00] thinking about how can I give that to them?
George Andriopoulos: Yeah, and that's a, it's a great thing. way to phrase that question, Ross, because that's all that matters is what they're looking for. Not what the parents are looking for from it. And I think parents have to keep that in mind that I'm sure we'll get into that. Right. It really depends on the age level, right?
As it kind of started. Cause my kids started young and now I have two more girls for my second marriage. And the one of them is in pre K she's four this year. She's going to be starting pre K PAL basketball. In a couple of months, which I'm excited about. So at that level, when my kids first started at the same age that my daughter is now, it's just about movement and having fun and socializing kids.
But specifically like me as a coach, when I kind of now having coached my kids from kindergarten through now, you know, my son's in ninth grade, my older daughter doesn't play sports anymore. She's a theater kid. But [00:10:00] like going back to it now, and I'm coming up with my strategies as a coach, it's like, okay, it's just about movement.
It's just about having these kids moving around the court, getting used to having a ball in their hands, getting used to moving around with a ball and working in a team setting. Every year that they get older, it's a little bit of skill and a little bit of leadership and sportsmanship building. Then when they get to that level, I think it's kind of for me, like third, fourth, fifth grade, like depending on the kid where skill now starts turning into ability or maybe it's the other way around ability starts turning into skill, real skill in the sport and they're starting to really dribble and play defense and actually get the ball in the hoop.
Now it's about, okay, how do we hone this skill set in this game while teaching these, this kid, what it means to be a teammate, what it means to be a leader on the court, what it means to be a sportsman on the [00:11:00] court. My kids, anytime I've ever coached, the first thing I say, you know, depending on the age level is I don't care about winning or losing. I care about two things. I care about you guys having fun with each other. I care about you guys becoming leaders and sportsmen. So we're going to have a blast. All I care about is, if you knock a kid down, you're gonna help them up, you're gonna give them a hand. If you pull a kid's flag and flag football, you're gonna hand that flag back to them, after you pull that flag.
If we are killing the other team, and you score a point, you score a a touchdown, you score a basket, We don't celebrate to mock the other team, right? We celebrate as a team because we did something together, but we don't celebrate to make the other people feel bad. So it's these things that like, I'm seeing it now with my son, who's so mature now and started high school this year.
And the stuff in the last three years that has happened on our teams has been so incredible to watch, [00:12:00] especially with the kids that I've been coaching for years. to see how they have turned into leaders, to see how my team leaders of which for the last, you know, since sixth, seventh grade, I assigned team leaders.
I don't use the word captain. I use leaders to see how They'll come out at a pivotal time in the game, they will actually come out willingly onto the sideline and start drawing up plays on their own to get the other kid, the one that didn't score a basket, the one that didn't score a touchdown, to get them some type of play so that they can celebrate that kid.
When they start doing that stuff, that's when I'm like, you know, we won. I don't care if we won, because we already won. So. I think they're looking for these certain type of things when they first start, but then they start acquiring these other skills that they weren't necessarily expecting, but that's going to help them in so many facets of life.
Ross Romano: Yeah. What for maybe some parents [00:13:00] out there who interested in the prospect of, you know, coaching their kid's team, but are hesitant for whatever reason. They, maybe they feel like they don't, I'm not an expert in the sport or I don't know if I can deal with all the headaches or whatever the case may be.
What are some of the things that are challenging about it that you've learned through experience and how have you learned to work through those things and, you know, and found that it is very much doable.
George Andriopoulos: Yeah. So, you know, the younger they are. It's less important that you know the sport and more important that you know how to talk to a child and how to kind of nurture their development through sport. I've always been a big proponent of, you know, I, I played sports in high school, but I was always, I was also an honor student and, you know, in the quote unquote smart classes, right?
I gravitated towards kids that did both sport [00:14:00] and education. And it was kind of cool to see in a lot of those kids, how these certain elements of sport. Help them in the rest of their life, whether it was the competitive nature, you know, how to build themselves through like internal competition as turn as intern, as opposed to external competition with other people.
Things like that. So if you can. If you can step in and gather a group of 10 kids and kind of nurture development using a ball in your hand as this sort of roadmap to it, that's when you should coach, it doesn't matter if you've never coached the sport before there's, there are elements of that, that you can learn, right?
Like I still get emails from these services that 11 years ago, when I first coached basketball, that I was like Googling, how do you coach youth sports? I mean, I. I never played organized ball as a kid. I don't basketball as a kid. I only did that as an adult. So I never went through these drills as a kindergartener or a second grader or [00:15:00] a fifth grader.
So I'm Googling things and I subscribe to all these newsletters, you know, that give you tips and what I still get them to this day. Because that's what I had to do. And all I knew was how to go out there and teach these kids a couple of things about the sport that I love that they can carry forward with them.
So, you know, become part of organizations that help support the growth and development of coaches so that you can help support the kids grow and develop. We're right now revamping the basketball program. This is the first year that I'm taking over as commissioner. So we're implementing in our program.
Coach clinics a month before the season starts. Some mandatory training that they're gonna have to go through that we never had before, right? So, it's two fold, right? Find the right environment for yourself, but also like, don't let it hinder you that you don't know the sport so well.
Ross Romano: Yeah, I mean, those are, and those are some great ideas there for getting, you know, that these coaches [00:16:00] aren't professionals, but having some training programs, clinics about the different things that they would want to know how to do. They can learn more about. The sport and how to coach the sport, but also I'm sure more about how to lead a team of kids and what to expect and everything that goes along with that to try to maintain a consistency of positive experiences across the program and different kids, regardless of what team they're on, that everybody is having a, you know, a good time.
One of the coach one of the sports that you have coached is the flag football you referenced, and that was what I wanted to ask you a little bit about what you've been doing. Observe the growth of that sport and I think it's become much more and more popular in recent years, certainly as a result of concerns about the safety [00:17:00] of tackle football but also it's a, you know, it's a sport that has a lot of participation now with boys and girls, right?
And it's going to be in the next Olympics. So it's a, it's really been a growing sport. And What have you seen there? What have kids, you know, how are kids kind of starting to get involved in that and enjoying that? And and what are you anticipating, you know, moving forward? Because I know, you know, there's schools now, right, that have flag football teams, the same as they have tackle football or whatever else.
And but it's something that, you know, really that's all happened pretty quickly compared to, you know, flag football's been around for a long time. But it was. very much a recreational intramural type of thing until more recently.
George Andriopoulos: Yeah flag football was interesting for me. Flag football was something that started for my kids and like, You know, second, third grade, somewhere around there. And it was a growing sport in, in our time in Farmingdale. It blew up to, it went from like a [00:18:00] brand new sport to like the highest registrations we had for any sport.
Which was amazing to see. And then to be out there every Sunday on these fields and watching. You know, all these different grade levels play. It was really kind of cool to see a safe environment for kids to play this sport that I know was, can be brutal. And a lot of parents are worried, especially with, you know, new knowledge coming out about CTE and all these other kinds of things.
Right? So, for me, flag football was always like an assistant coach thing. It overlaps with the basketball season a little bit. And it's a, you know, it's a lot of responsibility to coach two teams at the same time. So I always like kind of in the beginning, sat on the sidelines. Then I got to know the coach really well.
My son had the same coach for a few years, so he would always ask me to assist. And then I became like the defensive coach, assistant coach on there. And I guess it was probably. Three or four years ago, that they sent out the typical, like we need head coaches, we're going to have to shut down this program if we [00:19:00] don't get coaches.
That's the scary email. They always said, so I signed up. They asked me if I could sign up as a coach and I said, no problem. I had never done it before, but I know football really well. And You know, it was at that level where my son was finally at that place where the kids started to really get some skill, and they were very athletic, and it was a fun game to watch, and I remember the first game, I didn't know what I was doing, I reached out to a bunch of my friends that I knew were flag coaches, and, you know, what do I do, how do I coach these kids, and, oh yeah, you know, they call the plays, you know, just, You know, do this and that.
Okay. And we go out there in the first game and the other team has the, like the wristbands with the playbooks. And I'm like, holy crap. Like, and we got destroyed in the first game. And I'm like, that's it. I know what I'm doing now. I went on Amazon. I ordered the wristband playbooks. I drew up eight plays. I drew up a whole strategy, sat down, did it.
And, you know, Implemented it with the kids, taught them the plays. I [00:20:00] started being the play caller for our kids. And then later on in the season would allow them to start calling their own plays. We called our own defenses. We had four, four options for defense. Eight plays on offense with two audibles. And lo and behold, this first year that I coached like football, we wound up winning the Superbowl that year.
So it kind of showed me that the biggest difference with basketball and football is as the coach, I can really control what goes on the field in football, as opposed to basketball. It's not as easy for a coach. You can tell them what they should be doing and what they should be focusing on, but it's really hard to draw up a play and make it work in basketball, especially in youth basketball.
So for me, it was like, if I gave them a little bit of structure as a coach so that they understand this is the system, guys, and especially after that first year. Like we, we did it and we won the Superbowl. And I'm like, this is pretty easy. Now we had a really good group of kids, [00:21:00] but every year since it's like, you follow me, like, I'm going to give you the tools you need.
Let me give you the structure. I'm going to teach it to you. And then I'm going to let you guys grow and do it on your own. And use this structure to create your own structure. And they do it every single year. And. You know, we either every year since then win the Super Bowl or we get to the Super Bowl game.
You know, so, so for me it was like being able to teach them this structure in flag football that Shows them, you know, the real life example of like, if you have a plan and you set goals, you're going to reach them. Right. We're three games into the flag football season now, and it's the same thing every year.
It's a, you know, I make these playbooks. They're not too complicated, but we don't get much practice time with PIL flag football. We had one practice before the first game and then a half hour practice leading up to the game. And we were getting destroyed. First game. And then we came [00:22:00] back and within, we were 10 seconds away from winning the game, but we just ran out of time.
Second game, same thing, neck and neck. We almost won the game with like 20 seconds left in the game. And we lost the game. And then third game comes last Sunday. And we destroyed the other team, like 42 to five. And they know, and I said that to them in the beginning of the season, we're probably going to lose the first couple of games, learning these plays and getting to know each other as a team is tough, but just trust me, let me lead you here.
And then you guys will be able to lead yourselves after we kind of get together and mesh as a team and that, and I saw it happen Sunday and now it's like. I'm so excited for the rest of the season. So, yeah, that's,
Ross Romano: It's something that might be encouraging to anyone who wants to get involved in that sport is that it really is its own thing, right? You know, I played football in high school and then in college played just some intramural flag football and I was like, I don't know what's going on out here.
You know, part of it being that our team was kind of playing Sandlot style [00:23:00] where we'd never practiced anything and we just showed up and said, run around and I'll find you. And Particularly when there's like a fraternity team, they're actually running drills. They're running plays. But but it's its own thing.
Obviously its roots are in the other sport of football, but it doesn't require that you're an expert in football to get to know it, to enjoy it. And and it really is. It's, you know, a growing thing that has a lot of kids are enjoying having a lot of fun with and able to, you know, take it as far as they want to that there's more and more programs available and and it can be its own kind of enjoyment.
Are there any stories like memorable stories that stand out coaching, whether it's the good, the bad, the ugly, the funny, that are just like representative of, you know, this is what it's like coaching youth sports, right? Or these are the things that stick in my mind. Yeah,
George Andriopoulos: actually just [00:24:00] recently told this story on another podcast and in reference to something completely different but it applies here as well. So, you know, when I didn't know what I was doing as a youth basketball coach, I think it was with my Dunn's team, maybe when he started.
So you're talking about, you know, nine, nine, 10 years ago with basketball. And I came up with a bunch of these drills. I bought the cones, I bought the number dots and I'm having him do drills and, you know, passing drills and shooting drills and dribbling drills and all this kind of stuff. And. You know, drills can get a little monotonous sometimes.
So sometimes I just wanted them to run around and get that energy out and have fun. So I invented this game, which I called scrambled eggs. And the game was basically we practiced on a half court, not a full court, and I'd blow the whistle and the kids would run around like maniacs. And I blow the whistle again and they have to stop dead in their tracks.
And I choose one person to pass [00:25:00] to and they have to shoot right from where they are. Now the point of it as a kindergartner was just movement. I play that game every single year, no matter what grade level it is. And as they got older, it became more about positioning. And then it became about situational awareness, right? Don't move where you're not supposed to be, right? So if the kid that can't shoot the threes is outside the three point line, you're going to get nailed because you're not in the right place. And I'm going to pass to him or her in that moment. So that they know, don't be there in a situation where we may need you to take a shot, right?
That's not where you should be. So now you fast forward to last season where I was My grade levels were 7th, 8th, 9th boys. My son was in 8th grade last year. And we had a great team. I started, I learned this lesson about four years ago that I stopped [00:26:00] Drafting friends and like trading for my son's friends And kids that I've coached in the past because, you know, you want to have an even team, even distribution, you know, you want to get the kids that are elite and the kids that have never picked up a ball.
So, funny enough is the greatest success I've had as a coach in basketball and football is when I just drafted a straight draft. In fact, football this year, I had a work function during our draft and I let one of the parents go draft for me. And we have an incredible team this year. So anyway, so we had a really good team last year.
You know, we started to mesh really halfway through the season. As they get older, my coaching style focusing on leadership and sportsmanship is a little tougher to. digest for kids, right? Because we are in a sort of time of showmanship and they see these guys in the NBA and it's a, you're trying to like unlearn some of these things as youths so that they can [00:27:00] use it at their own discretion later on.
Like perfect example is, you know, First practice of the season last season, I, a kid would get a pass and they would automatically step back to behind the three point line. Now these are seventh, eighth and ninth graders. It could barely hit a basket. Within 15 feet of the basket. Now they're shooting three pointers and some of them are decent, but some of them are coming anywhere near it.
And I'm like, you don't have to be Steph Curry, right? Understand where you are on the court and where your strengths lie and play that position. So we had this one kid who was a ninth grader, big kid, probably my size. He was like six, one played like a guard, right? A lot of jump shots, a lot of dribbling.
And he'll be. Pretty good at it one day. He's still getting there, but in this age level, this guy was Wilt Chamberlain, right? He was huge compared to the, like my son last season was barely five feet tall and this guy's 6'1 right? So I'm trying to teach this kid all [00:28:00] season how to play like a center, right?
How to post, you know, when you're inside, take the layup, all season long. This kid will be two feet away from the basket and he's just taking jump shots. Jump shot two feet away is really tough to hit, you know, and so. Get better and better through the season, we make it to the championship game. We had a one hour practice right before the game on the same court.
So we do a couple of drills and I see that everybody is like having a bad shooting day. So I go, you know what guys? We're going to play scrambled eggs. Alright? Situational awareness, be somewhere on the court where you know you're going to make a shot. But what I did was, I drilled into their heads. Like this kid, the big kid, Anytime he got near the basket, I blew the whistle and he stopped.
I pass it to him. He shoots his jump shot and he'll either make it or miss it. But most of the time he's missing it. Gives me the ball back. They don't move until I blow the whistle again. I blow the whistle, and then a quarter of a second later, I blow it again. So that he [00:29:00] doesn't even move. Everybody's in their same spots.
I give it to him again. Jump shot again. Blow it again right away. He didn't move. Pass it to him again. Jump shot again. I did it 15 times in a row. Until about the 9th time, he shoots a layup. And he makes it. And the 10th time, he shoots a layup. And 15, it's a layup. Same thing with some of the other kids that have taken those step back threes, and I'm trying to get them to take a step in, not a step out, right?
We don't need the three pointer. And I'm just drilling it into these kids heads. And we played a really good team in the championship. P. S. We wind up destroying these guys by like 30 points. The big kid had like 20 points in the game. And it was just an incredible win against a really good team that we weren't sure if we could beat.
And it's, I love that story because this game that I've been using since they were little kids still has meaning today and still could teach these kids something. So I just, I love telling that [00:30:00] story
Ross Romano: I mean, that's a lesson that carries all the way through the sport, right? I mean, they're playing as kids, but if they play at a higher level, it's about knowing your strengths, putting yourself in position to do what you do well. And I think that's one of the maybe misunderstandings of. Some of the way that strategy is thought of and applied, like, certainly within basketball, it applies to other sports as well, though, but right at the professional level where it's like, it has to be layoffs or three pointers.
And then, like, well, what it means is that if you only shoot two, 40 percent on on 15 footers. You shouldn't shoot a lot of 15 footers because it's, but if you shoot them at 70%, then that's a great shot. It's like, put yourself in position to do what you do well. And then you're going to, you're going to be successful and and it gives, you know, kids a chance to learn about that and say, look, you might think it's fun to shoot.
three, but [00:31:00] if you're only making one out of 10 or something you know, in the long run, it's not going to be that much fun versus finding the shots that are good for you. So, you know,
George Andriopoulos: and really teaching them. Teaching them that stuff in a way that, that they can hear it, that it's digestible for them. Again, you know, here we're in New York here, right? So we're A little rougher than some other places, right? Where we're jaded people here in New York. So the kids aren't always like the sweetest kids, right?
Off the bat, unless they're really young and then they are sweet. So, you know, me as you know, I own a consulting firm for a living. I also own a global public speaking company. I'm a public speaker myself. I speak all over the world. So I have the ability. To be very inspirational and very motivational.
And I love doing that. I don't do that with the kids until it's those last couple of games. When we're in the semifinals in the finals, that's when they hear a speech from coach George. I'm talking to them on their [00:32:00] level, right? I'm joking with them. I'm trying to be with them to teach them these lessons.
We had a couple of games last season where we had some emotional players, right? Some kids that I've coached before, some kids I haven't coached before that, when they're having a bad game or they have a loss, they take it hard. And it's just as important for me to teach them. It doesn't matter if you, what did you learn from the loss?
So let's get you out of this mode to teach you that a loss isn't the worst thing. So what we would do is our games for some reason last season, they were running them really efficiently. The refs probably to get out of there earlier, but. You know, we still had time in the gym by the time the game was over and I go, all right boys, let's go.
You know, everybody shake hands with the other team. And then get out of the huddle and we go to the other side of the court and we have like an impromptu little scrimmage with ourselves and I'll play in that scrimmage. Right. So once I'm playing with them, it's that dynamic of everybody wants to be coach.
Right. So I'm putting myself on their level. I'm playing with them. I'm not just telling [00:33:00] them, Oh, this is how you do it and drilling it into them. I'm showing them and they see me miss shots where they see me get shots or they'll beat me off the dribble, or sometimes I'll beat them off the dribble. And it kind of creates this bond between us where they start trusting you again.
One of those, one of the kids on that team last year, who was pivotal, It took him a while to, to listen to me or to trust me as coach. And then one day it was just like, coach, once they start calling you coach, that it's like, the trust is there. And it was like, okay. And then we were able to mold this kid into something that became successful on the court and that he could maybe learn a new way to play the game. (ad here)
Ross Romano: Yeah, to that point, you know, as we're sort of up the conversation, I'm sure a lot of this happens naturally, but I'll give a chance to be metacognitive about it. How do you think about, I [00:34:00] guess, Utilizing your lived experience, your, you know, business experience, right? The things that you're involved in to benefit your perspective on how to go about coaching things that could work, right?
Things that motivate leadership, while also, I guess, determining how to appropriately compartmentalize and say. And I think that part is. Something that there's a lot of variability. There's certain people if they're in a certain type of business or role, right? Like, they bring that everywhere they are.
They have a hard time turning it off and saying, like, when you're here, you're not a CEO, you're coaching kids, or you're not a CEO, you're just peers with the other parents here, right? And there's other people who relish, like, okay, great. When I'm here, I don't have to worry about [00:35:00] that stuff I do at work.
Now when I'm here, I'm doing something totally different. But it's like, obviously there's a lot of things that you've learned from your experience in other facets of life in entrepreneurship in business that's like, Oh, this is something that seems to work for people or people respond to this and relate.
But you're also in a very different role. So, you know, however you want to answer that, but I'm just curious as to, you know, how you use it all to your benefit and and whenever you need to, you know, also able to make the shift. Right.
George Andriopoulos: Yeah, it's great. It's a great question because it's something I battled with my whole life in terms of. meaning not just how to be a certain person on the court and not on the court, but more like this balance in my life. I have a much more complicated story of like where I came from my personal and professional journey and then how I'm, you know, in what I call act two of my life which, you know, started about [00:36:00] 13 years ago.
How I've changed as a person and as a human being and, That big change for me came when I was able to find balance in my life. And that balance was about being the same person everywhere that I am. When I was younger and dumber, it was about like, you know, Oh, when I'm at work, I got to portray this guy.
And when I'm home, I got to portray this guy. And when I'm with my friends, I got to portray this guy. And it was all about optics and what things looked like and blah, blah, blah. When I dropped all of that stuff. In this part of my life and really just humbled myself. And yeah, I've achieved some pretty big things in life, but like, it doesn't matter, I just want everywhere I go, I want them to see the same person.
Right. So yes, they might know that I'm the CEO of a company and that I speak all over the world and that I do all of these really cool things, but I want them to also know that I'm a dad and [00:37:00] a husband before everything else. And same way that I do that on the court or in my personal and community life, in my professional life, they know that too.
Like, they know who I am in my professional life, but they also know my values and my boundaries and everything. And they know that nothing comes from before being a dad and a husband to me. So, I think those that, that know me in the community in this way, know that I'm coming to the court or to the community as you know, this one same whole human being, and I'm bringing all of my experiences with me, right?
So I don't need to tell people I'm a CEO and I've learned all these things in this way, but innately, if I'm building teams as a consultant, if I'm speaking about my life experience on a stage in front of 10, 000 people, I'm I've learned things in those arenas that I take with me and I try and really in really small ways teach them [00:38:00] to these kids.
And it starts with the smallest little thing. It starts with when they're in kindergarten, when you knock that kid over, put your hand out and pick them up. It starts with don't get a basket as a kindergartner and then make fun of your friend that missed the basket. It grows to these levels where Not even just their actions, it's what I'm seeing in that the kids that know me, or the kids that I may have coached in kindergarten, that you know would never have picked a ball up.
In another, you know, in another universe, right? Like, like when I was a kid, if you weren't athletic, you didn't play basketball, end of story to see that their parents, you know, took the chance to put them in an activity that they might like, and to see like nine, 10 years later, they're still doing that.
And maybe now they've achieved the skill [00:39:00] level to do it on an elite level and they never would have, or. Maybe there's still that kid that's not super athletic, but that just goes out there with their friends and they're having a blast, right? So I see that and I know that I've taken these elements of my experiences and I've put them onto the court in order to make a real change for those kids.
I I've told this story before. I'm actually in the middle of writing a book right now and it was really cool to kind of look at my sports experience and put this in there. I talk about leadership a lot and people hear the word leadership and they think it's this big thing that like only a born leader can achieve.
And I say to them, take these two things I did in my life. One was the day I volunteered to coach my son's basketball team for the first time. And the other one was when I co founded a nonprofit in 2011 that aids families in medical crisis. one of those is the better example of leadership? And, you know, [00:40:00] 99 people out of a hundred are going to say the nonprofit thing.
And I go, well, sure. I, you know, we've helped dozens of families come out of situations where they're in medical financial crisis because of a medical crisis. And we've done some amazing things. We've given big grants to other nonprofits. But what about the coaching thing? What if me as a coach, what if I convinced some kid that never would have picked up a ball in another time to not only love this game, but to continue playing it?
And what if this kid eventually becomes an elite player? And what if this kid, because he becomes an elite player, goes to college when they never would have in another situation? And what if that college is paid for? Because of this skill that they attained. And what if this kid becomes a judge for the Supreme court and changes our judicial system one day, now tell me one was the bigger act of leadership. And that's how people have to think of this when they volunteer to [00:41:00] say, okay, I'll do it. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'll do it.
Ross Romano: Right, right. It's opportunities to make an impact, and you don't know what that's going to turn into but yeah, I mean, this show, you know, being part of our network, and, you know, most of our content is, well, all of our content is around education, but most of it's more K 12 schools and it's certainly all of my work is Access and opportunity.
As long as everybody has access to good, you know, people, good in schools, good curriculum, good leadership, good opportunities to do what they want to do, they can do who knows what they can do with it. But exactly to your point of some people don't view themselves a certain way and they need someone else to say, why not?
Why not you? You can do this or try it, or there's no expectations around it. Just have fun with it. And you [00:42:00] might learn that it's something you really enjoy, or you might, it opens you up to something totally different. Right. And and so it's it's definitely something that it's great for all kids to get involved with and to make of it what they want to make of it and to have, hopefully people that.
That encouraged them to do so. George, for any of our listeners who want to connect with you, learn more about your work what should they do?
George Andriopoulos: Yeah. Easy. My website is georgeandreopolis. com. Nice and easy. You could find all my companies and all my socials on there. And on most social platforms, I'm Launchpad CEO.
Ross Romano: Excellent. Listeners, check that out. We'll put the links below, make that easy for you. If you want to connect please also do subscribe to Sideline Sessions. We are in the midst of season three here, so we'll continue to bring you more insights from coaches involved in all types of roles across the sporting landscape youth, high school, and beyond.
A lot of things out there, so whatever sport you're involved [00:43:00] in, if you're a coach, a parent Otherwise another stakeholder, hopefully there's a lot of things there for you or visit the podcast. network to learn about all of our shows, George, thanks for being here.
George Andriopoulos: Thanks Russ.