Part 2 of a 3 part series: Changemakers in Sport
What makes a great sports coach? Someone you’d want in your corner—and someone you’d be thrilled to have coaching your child? We think we’ve found one worth learning from.
In the latest episode of our three-part “Changemakers in Sport” series, Opal’s Director of Exercise + Sport, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, sits down with Liza Rickey, Head Cross Country and Assistant Distance Track & Field Coach at Issaquah High School.
Liza has led athletes to multiple State titles—but that’s not what makes her story so compelling. Her real success lies in how intentionally she coaches the whole athlete, weaving mental health, nutrition, mental skills, and creative, athlete-centered practices into the sport experience.
She’s also a true changemaker—willing to challenge long-standing norms and reimagine systems to create a healthier, more supportive experience for all athletes.
Tune in for a conversation about what it looks like to coach with intention, courage, and the whole athlete in mind. You won’t want to miss this one!
Contact Liza: lizarickey@gmail.com
Links:
Connect with Opal:
Thank you to our team…
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/
Sound engineering by Ayesha Ubayatilaka at Jack Straw Studios
Transcription provided by Rev.com
Kara Bazzi (00:06):
Hello and welcome to The Appetite, a podcast brought to you by Opal Food and Body Wisdom, an eating disorder treatment clinic in Seattle, Washington. It is a podcast about all things food, body, movement, and mental health. I’m Kara Bazzi, co-founder, clinical director, and the director of the exercise and sport program at Opal, as well as your host for today. Today’s episode is part of a three part series that is titled Changemakers in Sport, where we’re interviewing guests that are making a positive impact in the sports world. On today’s episode, I have the pleasure of having a conversation with Liza Rickey, head cross country and distance track coach at Issaquah High School. Liza and I go way back. We were teammates and friends at the University of Washington where we were both shaped and influenced by our lived experience of college distance runners running in the late ’90s.
(00:56):
And while I went into the field of mental health, Liza took the path of education, starting off as a teacher, but eventually becoming a principal. And she started coaching back in 2011 consistently and has used her leadership roles in both school and coaching to create systemic change that the sport world needs. She is a complete and total badass and I can’t wait for you to hear how she’s used her lived experiences as fuel to disrupt ineffective sport systems. Welcome Liza.
Liza Rickey (01:27):
Thank you. What an introduction. I love it.
Kara Bazzi (01:30):
It’s very fun to have you sitting across from me. Okay. Let’s start by giving the listeners some context of you and your story as an athlete. So what would you like to share about your history in sport that shapes who you are today as a coach?
Liza Rickey (01:48):
Yeah. I have been running basically my whole life. I did do multiple sports, which is great for young kids. My dad was a national runner for Ireland, so running was kind of destined for my family. So started running short distances in track at the age of five, cross country at the age of eight, went on to actually run for my dad in high school on a very successful team. And I was pretty good, but not great. We won state, but I was never a top runner on varsity, but part of the pack, not part of the lead. And then I was going to take a break. But long story short, ended up running in college, very happy I did. It was a great experience running with Kara, learned a lot and that specific experiences, those specific experiences were very instrumental in how I coach now and some of the changes I’m trying to make and influence in today’s athletic world.
Kara Bazzi (02:44):
Well, we’re going to be excited to hear about that then, aren’t we? What led you to making the decision to. Well, you’re saying it was very influential in shaping who you are today as a coach. When did you know you wanted to be a coach? When did you make that decision? Is that something you kind of knew right away or?
Liza Rickey (03:06):
I actually didn’t want to be a coach. So my dad was a coach. I mean, he just recently retired a year ago and it wasn’t something that I was that interested in. However, right after graduate school and I was doing my student teaching and things like that, I found myself volunteering and coaching a little bit on some local teams and really liked it, but then stepped away, got into my teaching career. And then I found myself as helping out coaching at the high school next door to me, but then I had my kids kind of stepped away again. And as they entered the running world in middle school and elementary school, I was just kind of helping out in their program. Again, didn’t want to be their head coach, didn’t want to directly be their coaches just because I know how that can be really tricky, the dynamics.
(03:52):
But then COVID hit and we had picked a high school very specifically for lots of reasons. One being I loved the head coach. It was a longtime female coach, though she was fantastic, had volunteered for her before I had kids and during COVID she couldn’t coach. And so I was a principal at the time. Life was a little bit more flexible because we weren’t in person yet. And so I stepped into the role because I really wanted the kids to have that option. And she said, “Great. I think this is what you’re meant to do.” And she was ready to retire and step away. I was really nervous about it and concerned. We had some family meetings about it and decided I loved it, super passionate about it and ended up pursuing it. And after a couple years, I’ve retired from being a principal and now I’m a full-time coach.
(04:38):
This is all I do.
Kara Bazzi (04:39):
Yes. And you put so much amazing. I can’t wait for the listeners to hear about sort of what you do as a coach now. But going back, you had the influence of being coached by your dad.
Liza Rickey (04:51):
You
Kara Bazzi (04:51):
Also had the influence of our time at the University of Washington. What did you feel nervous about or what did you feel excited about when you started coaching more consistently?
Liza Rickey (05:01):
I was excited about a lot of things. The team was great. They came to me and were like, “Hey, we want to win state titles. We want to be really competitive. We want to be a championship team.” And I was like, “Yes, let’s go.” Nervous, a lot of imposter syndrome. Didn’t feel like maybe I knew enough or that I was capable enough at first. I do not have those worries anymore. I feel very confident in my abilities, but it’s kind of scary. And there was very few female head coaches in my league when I stepped into the role. So found a few people that were very willing to give me advice, collaborate with, and that was very, very helpful. I think you step into these meetings and they talk about all these things that you’re supposed to know and you don’t, and so you just kind of smile and nod, but then you learn and then you figure it out and then you’re like, all right, now I’m going to take these things and make them my own.
(05:51):
Such as like any new career or new passion, you’re going to make mistakes. You just got to go in with an open mind. You’ve got to go there to learn and always keeping kids at the center. That was the most important. What am I doing that’s helping my athletes and my team and keeping that as my north star?
Kara Bazzi (06:08):
Yeah. And you have had a lot of success, a lot of success as a coach. The Isaquah team under Liza’s amazing leadership has won three state titles and has been the runner up five times. That’s remarkable.
Liza Rickey (06:27):
Thank you. What
Kara Bazzi (06:28):
Do you think contributes? Why do you think you’ve been so successful
Liza Rickey (06:32):
As
Kara Bazzi (06:33):
A program?
Liza Rickey (06:34):
Well, again, with the boys team, they had never won a state title prior and they came to me. So my oldest son was a freshman at that point and there was a lot of upperclassmen and they were hungry. They really wanted to have a championship level team, to be elite, compete at NXR, all of these goals they came to the table with. And so it was my duty is to figure this out. All right, what do we need to do? Also, I have a gift of a very large team. It can be a gift and a tricky challenge sometimes. We have about 130 to 140 athletes, which is great for development and culture, but it’s hard sometimes to be able to specialize, give every single kid their own program. But with that, rising tides lift all boats. So our number 100th runner is pushing 99 all the way up to our top runner and we really harness that.
(07:22):
So we have a culture of we are a championship team, top to bottom. We don’t just focus on the top seven or the top nine as our varsity. So that was really helpful on the boys side. They just came in and then that built that culture. We were second our first year as a head coach and that they were shocked and it was so exciting. The next year they won back-to-back titles and then they were second again. So it was this snowball effect and then making sure that we were providing them the opportunities, not only in their training, but their mental skills, their nutrition, all of these things that help them. On the girls side, I do coach the girls differently. They’re a very different team. They really wanted to focus more on their team culture and coming together and running. And lately our success has been pack running.
(08:12):
And so that’s been really helpful for them, especially as you have freshmen who come in with very little knowledge and it’s lovely and they just get to run with their friends and they don’t really understand the pressure yet, which I want to keep them in that bubble as long as possible. So when you have pack running and team running and you’re just going out with your friend and racing and see what happens, the joy is there. And so a little bit of different styles for each team, but it’s been working out so far.
Kara Bazzi (08:38):
It sure has. And sticking with maybe the success, and then I want to get into other things, but you have been awarded the coach of the year. And there’s obviously outcomes and athletic success and we’re going to talk about so much more than that, but what would you say defines a good coach? What qualities, what characteristics, what do you think it takes to be a good coach, not just from an outcome perspective, but just as an overall builder of people?
Liza Rickey (09:12):
Absolutely. And yeah, oftentimes these awards are given because of the accolades, the state championships, the league championships, et cetera. But for me, that’s nine of your athletes. And so you are neglecting the vast majority. So one thing that we do constantly keep tabs on is injury because I feel like that’s a huge indicator of good coaching and success is if you are keeping your athletes healthy. And so we track that. We’re down to less than 5% of our team have season ending injuries. We’d love it to be zero, but we’ve had a lot of growth in that area. So that’s something we’re always thinking about is injury prevention and keeping them healthy and strong so they can enjoy the sport. I think for a quote good coach, you can’t just coach the athlete in the sport. You have to widen that lens. If that’s the only identity you know about this person, that’s so limited and you need to get to know your kids.
(10:03):
They’re so much more than just athletes. And a lot of what we do, I try to tap into, it’s more than just the skill for this sport in this moment of your life. It’s like things you can take away and use your entire life. So we do a lot with mental skills. We do a lot with nutrition. We do a lot with identity so that athletes walk away and they’ve got skills that they can tap into and they have resilience that can carry them in all parts of their life. Another thing I’m passionate about is females in leadership. So on my girls side, we talk a lot about leadership and if you’ve seen the studies that 90 some percent of females in C-suite positions were athletes. So there’s definitely a correlation there. And then I think it’s important as a female coach that I’m modeling my leadership.
(10:52):
I’m not like the soft nurturing kind of coach. I’m kind of a hard ass in the best way possible, but high expectations. But I think that’s important for my boys team and girls team to see as strong females in leadership. And I would say the last thing I think is really important for coaches, a growth mindset. I’m never stuck on like, well, this is the way we’ve always done it or this has worked in the past. You have to look at your athletes that are in front of you, take the best, newest research or information you have and adapt. And I think that’s really important. Do
Kara Bazzi (11:18):
You have an example of that in your own growth mindset of finding yourself making a mistake in coaching and kind of what that brought to you for leading?
Liza Rickey (11:30):
Every year I reflect and I ask for feedback from my coaches too. And we do a survey from the athletes because I’m constantly trying to get better. Something that’s just come up is our cell phone use policy. So we’re thinking about revamping that because with Gen Z and the mental health crisis and now research is showing the more time they spend on their phone, not only is it negatively impacting their athletic performance, but then they’re not connecting in real life with their friends. There’s some opportunities there. So we’re in talks as a staff of how to revamp that and give kids more opportunities at the meets, play games, do some interactive things and not just be on your phone for both the mental health and for their performance.
Kara Bazzi (12:12):
And we know that in track meets there’s a lot of time downtime between these events. So it could be a lot of time on phones isolated or chatting with people or interacting with people.
Liza Rickey (12:22):
I know. And we’re going to get some pushback. So we’re hopefully going to pull in our captains and get some buy-in and some conversations going. So that’s something just recently I’ve been thinking about because it’s so nice for them to have that tool, but is it worth the cost?
Kara Bazzi (12:37):
For sure. Well, you talked about, you mentioned nutrition. Of course, I’m now going to merge what we do at Opal with working with people and healing the relationship with food and with their body image and with exercise. And you talked about things like mental skills and nutrition. Can you give some, I don’t know, maybe share a little bit about how did your lived experience shape how you’re bringing those parts really intentionally into your program?
Liza Rickey (13:07):
Absolutely. So I had a very unhealthy relationship with food, especially in college. I was never diagnosed officially with any kind of disordered eating, but definitely looking back now, I know and throughout my adult life that there was extreme restriction happening, lots of food rules, a lot of body dysmorphia and some really, really negative self-talk, not only about my own appearance, but my relationship with food. And that drastically impacted every part of my life, not just my athletics. So using that to be hopefully an advocate for, nope, I call all my athletes elite athletes. We are endurance elite athletes. We need to fuel for performance. And so as a coaching staff, we’re really intentional with A, educating athletes and we’re constantly talking about fueling and I appreciate all the support you have given and kind of crafted best practices for that. So we do nutrition talks both as athletes.
(14:05):
I do it with the parents from the beginning of the season, which has been very helpful because they’re really important piece of this puzzle. And I speak a little bit about my lived experience, but not a lot, just enough to like, this has impacted me and I know it’s still out there. I’ve heard coaches, I’ve seen coaches, I’ve had athletes go into collegiate programs that have some concerning practices still. So that’s one way we embed it. It’s just constantly in our newsletter. We’re having team talks, we’re having parent talks, things like that. And then as a staff, we’re really dialed in with the words we use and what we do and don’t say. We never comment on an athlete’s body, period. It’s not a compliment, nothing. Now sometimes behind the scenes we might notice something and have some concerns, but we never ever comment on bodies to the athletes or ourselves.
(14:55):
And that’s been, I think, really a huge change that I made when I started coaching because I used to be very self-deprecating about my appearance and kids pick up on that, even my own family. So that’s something I’ve shifted. So those are two big ones that as a staff we do a lot. And then we do REDS prevention work too. So a lot of kids and coaches and even doctors don’t know about REDS.
Kara Bazzi (15:20):
Which is relative energy deficiency in sport.
Liza Rickey (15:23):
Yes. And preventing that. And so we do a lot of conversation around that. We do girl talks, which is every other, every third week where the athletes are leading a talk about a specific topic related to being a female athlete. And now we’re adding boy talks.
Kara Bazzi (15:39):
Oh, that’s amazing.
Liza Rickey (15:40):
I know. Yay. I’m really excited. That’s new. We’re still figuring out the logistics of all of that, but I did some boy talks at some camps I was at this summer and it was a huge hit, even though I felt like it wasn’t as natural for me. But again, A, I’m not afraid to talk about anything and B, we’re going to onboard some of my other co-head coach is a male. So he can start bringing that work too as well. Are
Kara Bazzi (16:03):
You going to have athletes lead the boys’ talks
Liza Rickey (16:05):
Or are you going to start with the coach? We’re going to start a little bit with the coach just because we have a still very young team. So I think maybe the beginning of the season, the coaches will lead it and then hopefully by the end of the season we’ll have some –
Kara Bazzi (16:20):
Athletes that are willing to take the risk. Yes. That’s awesome. For the listeners, what kind of topics are being brought into these girls’ talks and how might you vary it for the boys?
Liza Rickey (16:29):
So for the girls, periods is a big one. And for the boys, we do talk about puberty and how to cue into their hormonal differences that might be occurring. For our female bodied athletes, their periods is an easier way to track it. For males, that’s a little trickier, but we do have some things we talk about like morning erections. I don’t ask them about that. I just give them the information and move on. Again, I have two sons. I taught fifth grade health, very little phases me, but I do quickly move on because I do not want to have questions about that one. And then other topics would be comparisons, and that’s been a big one with our boy talks too. And something that they brought up was the comparison within the team instead of jockeying for position and how that kind of impacts the culture negatively.
(17:19):
So comparisons/social media, we’ve done talks on just being more in tune with your body and taking a break from the technology, giving you information.
Kara Bazzi (17:30):
Listening to body. Body wisdom.
Liza Rickey (17:32):
Right.
Kara Bazzi (17:32):
Wink, wink. Yeah.
Liza Rickey (17:34):
Instead of like, what does your watch tell you? No, what does your body tell you? It’s a big one. Artificial intelligence telling you how you feel. You can just check in with yourself. So those are a couple of them.
Kara Bazzi (17:46):
I love it. Oh my gosh. I wish I could sit into your team talks.
Liza Rickey (17:51):
A lot of them ideas came from you.
Kara Bazzi (17:52):
Yeah. Well, that’s so fun. I love singing practice. Are there other practices that you want to mention that you do as a coach? Because one thing that strikes me is how intentional you are, how you take your learning and you actually take action and you implement things and you make these changes on your team. And you’re so generous. You’re so generous with your information. You do not gatekeep. You are somebody who is going to share it with any coach that wants to listen to you. And so I guess here’s another place for someone to listen to you. Are there other practices that you are proud of and that you’re doing that you feel like are really effective as a coach?
Liza Rickey (18:32):
Yeah. And again, happy to share. I’ve spoken at other teams. I’ve spoken at camps. I’ve sent resources out. Again, I don’t own my own business. I just do this because I think it’s really important. So happy to share. So listeners, if you have any questions, feel free to email me and I will provide you resources. Some of the things that we also. So every year I feel like we get a little bit better. Last year we started some journals. This year the journals are going to be even better. So it was just like lined paper, but this year we’re being more intentional with specifically goal setting blocks. And then we have brought on a mental performance coach. So one of our coaches, that’s the work she does. She comes every Friday and she’ll work a rotation between small group, whole group or specific one-on-one check-ins.
(19:18):
And so we’re really excited about that. She’s got a continuation of skills she’s going to work on and we’re going to embed that into our journal as well so that the athletes, again, have something to take with them, something to refer back to. So very excited about that. Can you
Kara Bazzi (19:30):
Give a tiny example of for listeners that wouldn’t know what mental skills would be from a sport perspective?
Liza Rickey (19:36):
Absolutely. So one of the things, so we dabbled with her last year with our girls team because the girls asked for something like this. So we brought her on and it was so successful. The boys were like, “We want it too.” We’re like, “All right, here we go.” So one of the things she did is about being present in the moment. So whether you’re working out or stressful test or in a race, getting ahead and worrying about what’s next, how do you bring your awareness to where you are right now? And so she did a little activity with them and had a little demo. And then we talked about cueing words and giving a skill, so something to work with. And then we practice it in our workouts. So it’s not like, oh, we talked about this once and it’s done. It’s we’re going to talk about it.
(20:17):
You guys are going to decide on what the tool is or what the cue is, and then we’re going to rehearse it for three or four times at practice before the race implementation. So then it’s in there and it’s not something you have to recall. So we’re trying to make them habits, not, oh, what am I supposed to do when I’m freaking out?
Kara Bazzi (20:35):
Yeah. Again, your implementation of this learning, right? You’re finding these places of really important education and then finding your way into the embodied practice in a really intentional, specific way. You’re such a
Liza Rickey (20:50):
Good coach. Thank you. I feel like there’s so much more, but like I said, every year we’re getting a little bit better. When I first started, we talked about mental skills a little bit just because of my education background. So it’s like social emotional skills and things like that was helpful to bring in, but this is so much more and I’m really excited about it this year. And the journals are getting tweaked. It’s not every athlete’s favorite thing to do, but we know the research is when you write it down, it becomes more powerful, more easily to implement, and it lives in your brain a little bit easier. And it’s part of our day. So they meet in small groups because there’s 138 of them right now. They meet in squads. They get out their journals. Their squad leader leads them through some things and it’s built into the day.
(21:36):
It’s not something already added in. So hopefully that helps.
Kara Bazzi (21:41):
And I know you’ve also spent a lot of time around some ideas for how to increase just people’s adequacy with nutrition and make it reduce barriers for, especially where you can control. Obviously you’re not in all your athletes’ homes, but around practice. So share with the listeners about some of those things.
Liza Rickey (22:02):
Yeah. So we have an Amazon wishlist and families donate so many snacks to us. So we have two giant snack locker snackers, as the friends from Wildwood Running would say. And athletes have free access to before practice snacks, which are simple carbs, easy to digest. We talk about it constantly. I check in with athletes constantly about their fueling and that’s just they have access to that. And then after practice, we have carb plus protein snacks available because they know they have 30 minutes to refuel those, to have a better recovery and a better tomorrow. So we really stress the pre-practice snacks makes you have better workout. The post workout snacks helps your recovery and have a better tomorrow. And then we give ideas around fueling all the time, whether it be, I have huge posters with different meal examples because I found that I would talk about these things that I though there was a common understanding.
(23:00):
And then a few of my girls one morning practice were saying, oh, I had breakfast. I had a piece of toast and a mild heart attack. And I was like, that’s not even a snack. So I needed to give actual examples because again, based on the wisdom from you and your group, we don’t use numbers. We don’t prescribe things like that, but visuals have been really helpful. What a performance plate look like? So with my friend AI, we made some great performance plates and the kids like to tease me about some of the errors that happened, but that’s fun for their engagement. But that’s been very helpful. And then we check in. So now something this season we’re thinking about is having them submit their performance plate pictures and we’ll put them in the newsletter or promote them. And so just making that tie to home too.
Kara Bazzi (23:48):
Yeah. So for the parents to see.
Liza Rickey (23:49):
Yes.
Kara Bazzi (23:50):
Yeah. That’s awesome. I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about how I think of you, and I said this and maybe that you’re a system disruptor. So you’re putting obviously a lot of effort into your own program, but then I’ve also gotten to see you in the larger context with other coaches at these coaches trainings and I see you speak up. I see you raise your hand. I see you just not take kind of the status quo you are willing to push and to challenge and to create better systems for everybody. Can you share a little bit about that work that you’ve done and where you’re trying to disrupt norms that need to be disrupted and just kind of what allows you the kind of energy and courage to do that?
Liza Rickey (24:38):
Yeah. I’m not shy. So I’ve always been very vocal with my beliefs since very young, much to my parents’ dismay. Very, very vocal about what I believe in and sticking up for injustices. And so this was true also in my teaching and principal career. I was a very strong advocate for my students and my staff and community and this just kind of carried through. So this isn’t something brand new to me. It’s just the context is different. I am lucky enough that I’ve known. So there’s a lot of veteran coaches in our community right now, which is great because they have a lot of historical knowledge and they’ve been very helpful, but I’ve known them because they saw me grow up, they know my dad, and so I kind of have a relationship with them. So that’s been helpful in my questions and my pushing back and my vocalization of, well, we need to do better in X, Y, and Z, specifically in nutrition and reds.
(25:36):
And they’ve been really responsive. And so I’m constantly, I know just saying, “Hey, we need this change isn’t going to do anything better.” So I’m volunteering. I will lead this PD. I will develop a new training for the coaches about REDS prevention. I will go to other teams and give this presentation for free. So not just complaining about the problem, but like, “Hey, here’s the solution I will be willing to do.” And so putting myself into leadership positions, putting myself out there. I know I can’t be the only one and do this forever, but there’s so many of us. There’s a lot happening. I’m not operating in silo, which is really exciting. And there’s a lot of female coaches getting together and having these conversations and putting things in place. So that makes me very, very excited. And my favorite phrase is closed mouths don’t get fed.
(26:29):
So if you see something that you want to change or you have an idea, you need to speak up. Even if it’s scary, even if it’s uncomfortable, that’s how things move. And you’ll be surprised at how many people say yes. When I asked to talk at the Washington State Coaches Association, I didn’t think they’d say yes, but they did. And so I got access to a big audience and a lot of positive feedback for that, and I’m going to offer to do it again.
Kara Bazzi (26:54):
That’s awesome. And then you also had a very busy summer – I did. With all these camps you spoke at. So I know one of the camps is connected to your dad and he made some changes at that camp. Yes. And then do you want to say more about that?
Liza Rickey (27:07):
Sure. So my dad was an owner and co-owner of that White Pass Clear Lake Cross Country Camp for a very long time. He stepped away and another coach, a huge part of that for a long time, he’s taken over as the camp director and it was great. He asked us about what changes, because now it’s time to make changes and updates. And I had lots of ideas. He appreciates it and he was like, “Okay, we can’t do everything all at once.” But we made some great changes. I got to design and implement the nutrition talk, did a girl talk and boy talk there, updated some of the handouts. So it was a great opportunity and received really well. So I’m appreciative of that.
Kara Bazzi (27:54):
And I think I’m glad you can say that and listeners can hear that, that the responsiveness has been really welcoming.
Liza Rickey (28:02):
So far.
Kara Bazzi (28:03):
Yeah. I’m
Liza Rickey (28:04):
Sure there’s somebody that’s like, “Stop talking.” But
Kara Bazzi (28:07):
That is what you’re experiencing. So I don’t know. I feel like that gives some hope in being courageous and opening your mouth of you’re actually being responded to really well. And maybe let’s talk about gender then at this point, because as a female coach, you’re working with a lot of male coaches and the sports system is still quite dominated by a male perspective. Research still is by and large with male athletes. There’s a lot more females coming into positions of power. But yeah, what would you want to say about the gender piece?
Liza Rickey (28:42):
Yeah, it’s been super interesting. I still get a lot of. Oh, who’s the head coach? A lot of. I know. I just guessed. One of the head coaches of track, I’m not a head coach of track, is a female and she’s one of the assistant coaches for cross country. And her co-head coach is also my co-head coach, a male, who’s a lot younger than me. I’m very old. But people will orient to him always over us. And then there was a call issue at a very important track meet, and they asked her, “Are you even a coach?” And she’s like, “I’m a head coach.” I’ve gotten that as well, like, “Where’s your head coach?” I’m like, “You’re looking at her.” So we were going to make some sweatshirts that said, yes, girls can be head coaches too, because we are not alone. I’ve spoken to many female head coaches who have had that experience.
(29:37):
And then there’s often now, because there are two head coaches now, this is going to be our second season of that, third season of that. Oh, I can’t remember time. It’s going by fast. That assume I am the girl’s head coach and assume he is the boys’ head coach. We are very clear to say no, we are co-head coaches. We’re still navigating that. Again, I’m not a shy or quiet person. So I know speaking up can be tricky for other female coaches because that’s not typically how we were raised to be very vocal. And we get categorized as certain words when we’re assertive and strong and in leadership positions. I’m not afraid of any of that. So that’s been helpful for me. But again, it happens so often that it is a little bit frustrating. But yesterday I was at a head coaching meeting for Kinko, and there were so many females in the room.
(30:36):
It was really exciting. So I’ve seen a huge shift that way. But again, when I look at clinics and things, if it’s male dominated by speakers, I automatically won’t go because I know that it’s one perspective. Or they have the one nutritionist or dietician as the female. So if that’s yours, fix it. I get very, very frustrated when I see that or when it’s panels of decision makers and it’s dominated by males and it’s for both male and female athletes. The decision making piece drives me insane.
Kara Bazzi (31:13):
And then we also, just from a representation standpoint, at least in the distance running world, we’re still seeing way too many white people.
Liza Rickey (31:20):
Yes. Oh, completely.
Kara Bazzi (31:22):
And then lack of body diversity size. So there’s still a ways to go on all of that representation.
Liza Rickey (31:28):
Yes. Couldn’t agree more.
Kara Bazzi (31:30):
Well, you mentioned showing your temperament and your leadership style as a role modeling for your athletes. I’m curious about, like you mentioned with these other female coaches and mentoring coaches and you have a big coaching staff, but then you’re also around coaches from all over the league in the state. So yeah, is there intentionality in that aspect or is it more like live the way you are and show that it’s possible for these other coaches?
Liza Rickey (32:06):
I think it’s both. Not everyone’s going to feel comfortable being as vocal as I am and that’s fine. We need lots of leadership styles. We need lots of coaching styles. I know that for my athletes, I might not be the person they connect with. That’s why there’s eight of us. So it’s important to also recognize I’ve got blind spots, I’ve got areas of growth. Sometimes I’m not the most patient person and every day before practice I’m like, listen first, ask questions and then tell them what to do. So I try to model all that and I think when talking to coaches that are asking for advice or mentoring in that regard, coming in again with a learner stance coupled with confidence. And that’s I think something I’m trying to tell all female coaches because, and I experienced this and I usually don’t experience imposter syndrome.
(33:00):
So that was very jarring for me because I’m a pretty confident person in most parts of my life. So just kind of faking it until you believe it because you outwardly want to project that, not only for your athletes and your parents, but other coaches as well. And then soon you’ll believe it. I mean, our brain is pretty amazing. If you keep telling it, yes I can. We’ve seen this. All aspects of life. If you just keep telling yourself, it will get there. It does take time. And then one other thing that I’ve been thinking about and seeing lately is reflecting about not the training. And I see a lot of young coaches come in and they want to coach how they were trained or what worked for them. And that’s a piece of it, but you need to widen your stance and your training programs because just because it worked for you as an athlete, especially if you were an elite athlete, doesn’t mean it’s going to work for a freshman boy who’s running a 10 minute mile.
(33:57):
So being very open to lots of different training styles and learning and adapting and not holding on to what worked for you as an athlete, I think that’s important. But that’s typically what we default to. This worked for me, this is how I was coached or this is the programs I used. And so that’s what we implement. So I think those would be my big nuggets of advice.
Kara Bazzi (34:20):
Yeah. And it just makes me think of going back to what you said about being a learner and you’re really wanting to observe and watch and learn and take in how your athletes’ responses to things, right? Absolutely. And how that’s just going to look really different for different kids. And it’s hard with a big team. I mean, I think that’s one of the challenges of a coach. How much can you really individualize that coaching?
Liza Rickey (34:44):
It helps with the eight coaches. And we try not to pigeonhole like one coach is in charge of these athletes, but we like to start the year with that so that an athlete has a coach to connect with immediately and then they can gather that input and make adjustments. So when we do our big Saturday workouts, every coach has a small group and has adjustments and writes down the adjustments as they go so that I have that data at the end of the practice. I have all their splits, all the adjustments, any feedback. So that’s one way to divide and conquer.
Kara Bazzi (35:15):
It is really exciting, I think, to hear how even some of the work that we are working on with clients that are recovering from an eating disorder is applied in this sport context setting and the ways that these kind of specific practices that are growing and developing and building human beings in a way that’s just going to help them be lifelong athletes if they want to and just develop as humans. Anytime I talk to you about coaching, I feel so energized and excited and I imagine, I’m hoping that listeners can hear from a perspective of what a good coach sounds like. What would you say makes you hopeful about right now in this season in 2026? What makes you hopeful about the sport world?
Liza Rickey (36:09):
Yeah, there’s so much. I loved going to the different camps. I went to Cascadia Running Camp. It was their first ever camp and it was so amazing, inspiring. And just talking to athletes across the state is just so joyous to me and their excitement, how they wanted to bring back some of the things they learned. They were really focused on the mental skills and identity piece, which was beautiful. And then the White Pass running camp, there was 120 athletes, love meeting them from all over the state and even talking to some of their coaches and their parents and just the excitement and the love they have for this experience in this community, not necessarily even the performances. So that gives me a lot of hope because I see our sport as so much more than just these track flation times that are happening and this crazy stuff on social media and getting away from little kids running insane times or insane mileage.
(37:10):
Then that’s not what this is about. This is about the community coming together, having so much fun, seeing some of the teams and their posts about the events that they had, like the social events they had over the summer. I love it. See home girls killing it. I’ve seen that too. I just think it’s so, because they’re an elite team, but they’re having fun and that’s what I love to see. And so good job, Kevin Ryan. I’m giving you a compliment. But his girls team, and he’s not on social media, but I see their posts and it brings me a lot of hope, especially on the female team side. It’s just so great to see. And then for our boys having some more of that joy, I think we lean a little bit more competitive on that side, which just by the nature of my team, that’s how we go, but bringing back the joy of it too, especially since I have a little bit of a younger team.
(38:05):
Talking to some of the other teams has inspired me to make sure that we are bringing the joy as well and not just focusing on our splits. So that’s what’s exciting. And it’s also exciting to hear so many more athletes learning and understanding about nutrition and low energy availability and how to prevent that and being just super aware of their mental health. I think this generation is the most aware of that, but they have the most barriers and they need the most support. So I think as coaches, we need to really honor that and work on that.
Kara Bazzi (38:41):
Yes, I would agree. Before we close, what is missing? Is anything missing from our conversation? Anything that you had wanted to talk about that we didn’t hit? I mean, I could talk to you for hours upon hours, but is there anything glaringly missing that.
Liza Rickey (38:58):
We talked about it a little bit. I would just advise coaches, athletes, parents, families to audit your social media. I mean, I’m getting more and more aware of the comparison, just the negative impact it’s having on your mental health. And we just had a person from the UDub coaches group come and do a training session with us this week, which was really good about mental health and phone use and just got me thinking, so we can all do better about A, auditing the content on our social media and B, just limiting the screen time. Again, I’m going to have some conversations with my athletes about how we can do that in a. I don’t want them to riot because we’ve always let them have their phones and I know there’s going to be some pushback, but how can we do this in the interest of promoting their mental health and their engagement where they are at the moment and community building?
(39:58):
So just something I’ve been thinking a lot about.
Kara Bazzi (40:01):
I know. I feel like there’s so much need collectively to be talking about this. My youngest just went to camp where there wasn’t access to phones for the week and it’s wild. I mean, just the amount of joy everyone had without having that as something to lean into for a week. And yet it worked because no one could. Right. Right. That’s the conundrum, the challenge with it is when people have different levels of access.
(40:29):
Oh, okay, Liza, listeners, Liza’s a really good coach. Thank you. And I hope you can learn what a good coach sounds like. Whether you’re an athlete, whether you’re a parent, whether you’re in proximity to athletes that are invested in sport teams, this is what we need to hear from other coaches. This is the kind of information, this is the kind of spirit we need to hear. Of course, I said you’re very generous and you’re very generous and you said people could be in touch with you. How could listeners be in touch with you if they actually wanted to connect?
Liza Rickey (41:05):
Great question. I do have a coaching specific Instagram, which is coachlizarickey, and that’s L-I-Z-A-R-I-C-K-E-Y. So it’s coachlizarickey on Instagram and you can message me there. Or my email is literally lizarickey@gmail, L-I-Z-A-R-I-C-K-E-Y @gmail.
Kara Bazzi (41:26):
And we will link that in the show notes. Great. If you’re somewhere, we can’t write that down.
Liza Rickey (41:31):
And I said it really fast.
Kara Bazzi (41:33):
We will link it. We will link it. Well, thank you so much for joining today, Liza. Thank you. You are a change maker, major change maker. Okay. And if you’re interested in Opal and want to learn more, please visit us at opalfoodandbody.com. Thanks to David Bozzi for editing, Jack Straw Cultural Center for Sound Engineering, and Aaron Davidson for the Appetite’s original music. See you next time.
