Megan Gebbia on Searching for Excellence

Megan Gebbia joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast. Coach Megan Gebbia is Head Coach of the Women’s Basketball team at American University. They have had amazing success since Coach Gebbia has been there, having gone to the NCAA tournament twice. Megan has helped the team to two conference championships, and they have been a very competitive team every year since she’s been there. They have created a culture that is selfless and specific in what they are trying to do and is system oriented.  They are a talented, smart, gritty group that I am lucky to get to work with. This conversation gets into her journey and will give you some insight into how she has come to be, and she will share some watershed moments that have shaped her life, and some people that have really influenced her.

In this episode, they discuss what life was like for her as a kid (5:20), what it was like to win a championship her Junior year of High School (8:05), her parent’s reaction when she got involved in sports (9:15), if she looks for athletes that play multiple sports (10:00), what she got from other sports that assisted her in basketball (11:00), the values her parents passed down to her (15:30), why she thinks some of the better coaches are the negatives ones (17:40), how much of her coaching style is about believing and telling it straight (23:50), what she knows now about coaching that she didn’t know when she was 26 or 36 (25:50), the dynamic of being a Head Coach (31:00), how she thinks about building her system and culture (35:30), how she goes about finding the players she wants (40:00), when she started to get recruited for college basketball (42:40), what her experience was like at Towson (43:30) , what changed after her brother’s car accident (47:30), why things became serious for her (50:30), what drives her as a coach (51:10), when coaching came into the picture for her (51:50), what it was like to coach players she was just in the locker room with (53:00), what she does to make sure she’s showing up at her best (54:00), why she loves practices (55:00), her routines on game day (57:50), how her mindset on defense has changed (59:10), what she wants her legacy to be as a coach (1:01:05), and how she makes sure she’s passionate and excellent (1:05:40)

Thank you to Megan for coming on the podcast. You can find her on twitter at  @CoachMegGebbia and the AU Women’s Basketball team on twitter @AU_WBasketball. You can also follow the team at http://www.aueagles.com/sports/w-baskbl/index.

Lastly, if you liked this episode and/or any others, please support us at Patreon or follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian