Greg Cannella edit
Tue, Aug 08, 2023 5:34PM • 37:56
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, lacrosse, work, people, great, umass, talk, team, greg, program, year, players, learn, football, mentioned, relationships, season, tremendous, university, kids
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Greg Cannela
Paul Barnett 00:00
Gregg Cannella Hello, and welcome to the Great coach's podcast.
Greg Cannela 00:04
Thanks so much, Paul. It's great to be with you.
Paul Barnett 00:06
It's great to be talking to you too. And I might just start by asking you, what are those plaques that I can see all behind you on the wall?
Greg Cannela 00:15
Yeah, those are all American plaques. The guys that have come through the program that have attained that status, and obviously get their get their plaque up on the wall. very prestigious award for any college athlete to become a US ILA all America. I mean, that's, you know, you're you're, you're the best of the best in Collins across. So it's fitting that they're sitting behind me right now. Because, you know, I definitely wouldn't be here because, you know, less it was those guys out there doing everything for us as a program.
Paul Barnett 00:52
Well, we're going to talk about all those all Americans that you've coached, and also the fact that you've been one too, but I want to start with a really hard hitting question, Greg, where are you in the world? And what have you been doing so far today?
Greg Cannela 01:07
Well, today, stories day, here. And so today, this morning, I you know, you get up. And normally I work out in the morning before I head into work. Get in the office around 8am after workout. We're preparing for practice, we have an early practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So our guys are out on the field at 1015. And so we're out there with for practice, and right now we're in a shortened part of our season, called eight hours, which is in a technical sense, that's the amount of time we could spend with them during the week. There is a 20 Hour segment that is would be are in season. So we're sort of out of season now. So we had about a half hour of coaching lacrosse skills today. No Contact today. And then our strength coach came out and did a half hour speed training with the guys we have a fantastic. Antoine Harris is a tremendous speed coach for us, and strength conditioning coach and then they follow him up to the weight room for about a 45 minute workout with the weights. So pretty busy day. And now I'm fortunate to be to be with you beyond with you.
Paul Barnett 02:24
Well, thank you for carving out some time we do like hearing more and more about lacrosse. I must admit I do like the physical aspect of it as much as the skill aspect of it. But I'd like to maybe just start, Greg by asking you about some of the great coaches that you've worked with. And I've been researching you I can see that there's the garba John SP in this tiny semen and then three icons of lacrosse lacrosse in America. But from this experience watching these great coaches up close, and perhaps seeing other coaches that aren't so great in your time at the University. What do you think sets the great ones apart from the rest?
Greg Cannela 03:04
It's a great question. First off, I'm extremely fortunate to have had that Garver. Tony Seaman work with John SP. I don't want to leave out Larry Glenn's who was my high school coach. And Rich Beckman who was when I went to Nassau Community College, he was my coach as well. All in the Hall of Fame coaches. So it I mean, I was very lucky when I look at the experience of, say, my own son. It wasn't even close in terms of the coaches that he had during his career. So I think what sets them apart is that they all possess a want to give, right? That they're, they're interested in helping people. Most of them are all educators, as well as coaches. Right. So you know, you're educating, you know, Coach Garber educated us through lacrosse. I mean, he was a true professional, but it was it was coaching life skills through lacrosse, right. And he let the guys play and the guys allowed them to show their ability. Right? So that's that was unique about him. Tony Seaman was an innovator, right? He was he we were doing interval training back in the late 70s, early 80s. For our sport, a 10. Man ride is a specific, excellent Oh, element, as well as the invert and I think, you know, he was he was the guy that was in the forefront of that. So innovation was his thing. John SP when I when I joined down with John SP at the University of Stony Brook in New York, John was elevating the program there from a Division Three level, the lower level up to the division one level, and he was tremendous motivator, but he was a tremendous leader to be able to do that to bring the program in to new heights, and very unique way to do it. My high school coach Larry Goins, who I love dearly, visited with him a couple of weeks back, he actually came in out to our team. He was a, he was a player's coach. He was a guy my first experience with you know, he, he wanted to know, every single guy, right? He wanted to know what made them tick. Guys love playing for him because he took special interest in the individuals. That was a great coach as well. He knew when to turn up the intensity. But again, I had never had someone like that. And, you know, it was a different experience for me. Because the way I was raised, my dad was a coach as well. The way I was raised was very different, very rigid. And this was this was very different from that this was encouraging, right, this was, hey, let's we're doing this together. He made sure we knew we were together. I learned so many lessons from him and then respect when you know, when you when you're working at a community college, the team changes from year to year me drastically. Right? So a community college is a two year school. And so the half the team or maybe even more than half the team leaves every year. And so we're where we coach at UMass. It's a four year right. It's a four year tenure. So coach had a great job coach Backman, that has had a great did a great job in molding the team every year, and made you play together. And, and the individuals were from rival towns in New York on Long Island. And so you know, you thought you hated these guys. But then two weeks later, you had to love those guys and respect those guys, in order to play together. That That wasn't an easy thing to do, especially with the you know, the egos of many of the athletes that you see out there. So, again, they all had something special about them, that that made them great. And again, my experience with those guys, I've tried to take something from them. All right, and and you know, my ideals and my beliefs of coaching. Certainly the roots are with these guys.
Paul Barnett 07:11
Greg, you mentioned your father there. He was a football and a lacrosse coach, as well as being the school principal. Now I can imagine he must have like all parents had some influence on you and giving you some lessons. But I was really keen to understand. Was there anything that you had to unlearn from your father when you became a head coach?
Greg Cannela 07:36
Yeah, I think I just mentioned it right. When dad grew up, he played football and lacrosse at Portland State in upstate New York, was really a football player and his roommates that played football convinced him to play lacrosse. And football coaches at my high school, Lynbrook High School on Long Island. And they actually outlawed spring football. That was a thing you did, right? You play football in the fall. But you had spring practice, they outlawed outlawed it a state rule. And so he started lacrosse. And he would they would pick up the sticks and play lacrosse for half hour, throw the sticks down and hit hit the blocking dummies and coach football for the next hour in the spring.
But, you know, again, his era was very different in the era of hard assets, its coaches, you know, you think of Vince Lombardi, right? You know, Bear Bryant, these iconic people, those guys were tough coaches, and my dad, that was his way, he was my way of the highway kind of guy. And again, it was very rigid. So what I learned was, you have to be flexible, right? Not everyone's the same, you can't treat the first player and the 15th player the same way, they may be totally different, they may learn differently, right? They may take criticism differently, right? They may take praise differently. So you have to be flexible, and you have to get to know your guides. And I kinda it didn't take any passion away from the way that I coached with the energy that a coach that I know my dad coached with it as well. But it just gave me a better understanding of hey, this is these kids are different. This isn't the 1950s or 60s. Right? You have to give them water breaks it mean you know, I talked to my dad, they they wouldn't give more to breaks for two days proud, you know, back then. But just just just to know that you're coaching a different type of athlete and a different type of person as well. And it had to be flexible that with that and try to mold individuals into something, you know, to come to some common ground right to get a critical mass to a spot where we were all in agreement on what Were doing[PB1]
Paul Barnett 10:02
well in 1993, you went back to your alma mater, you went to UMass, and you worked on decarb as an assistant coach, and when you're reflecting on it, I've got this great quote from you, you say, I was full of a lot of anger, a lot of trying to get out there and prove myself as a coach. There's a lot of people listening, Greg, who will live support staff in their teams, either work social, corporate community, who also fit that description. But based on your experience, working out that anger moving beyond it, what advice would you have for people who might be managing someone like you were in 1993?
Greg Cannela 10:41
What a great question. I would say let them be right. You know, let them set their own path. Right. I know that coach Carmen actually worked with Ted Garber, who was Dick Garber's son, when I came back to UMass as an assistant. And, you know, and mentor those folks to be professionals, right? You know, this is how things are done. Right? You're, you know, I was told that you're a college coach, you're here at the University of Massachusetts, what a great place it is. Let let some of that stuff go right. And I had a chip on my shoulder because I felt like I was a decent enough coach to be hired before you mess stepped in and hired me, right? So I always want to prove myself. And I think every coach in the world, the history of coaching, wants to prove themselves. But again, don't take anyone's passion away, like I just mentioned before, allow them to work through that encourage them to continue to be a strong influenced on the people that you coach. And again, that's what professionalism is.[PB2]
Paul Barnett 11:55
So you go on from there. And at 29, you were appointed Head Coach of the University of Massachusetts, which is pretty big thing at a very young age. What was some of those early lessons that could have come from successes or failures that you had, then that went on to become a core part of your philosophy?
Greg Cannela 12:17
Wow, that's another great question. You know, I'm thinking back, it's probably like, believing in yourself, right, and trusting your own instincts. You know, as a young guy, there was a lot of doubt, right, as a young coach, and you know, and other coaches, older coaches tried to intimidate me, you know, on the sidelines or, or at the conventions, I can remember coaches in LA to come into my place this year, you know, that sort of thing. But believe in yourself, trust your instincts, believe in your own ability. And believe in your ability to reach people. And I think that's, I think the communication part of it was easy for me because I was young, and I wasn't that far away from these guys. So I knew how to build a strong relationship with younger guys, right? It's probably a little bit more difficult. Now for me. Not that I'm old, but as an older coach, right to to relate or for these guys to look at me and go out, you know, Coach, coaches, Cooley, he gets us, you know, he understands us. But it's also that, I learned that if you're going to be successful in any walk of life, you have to work hard at it. If you believe in something and you want something, it's not going to come easy and it's going to be a lot of ups and downs. You have to persevere through those ups and downs and you know, try to stay as positive as you can with yourself but also as positive as you can with the people that you work with.[PB3]
Paul Barnett 13:49
Does it take you long to get the balance right between driving for success and keeping some semblance of a normal family life
Greg Cannela 14:00
that's really the hardest part and be quite honest with you. That's really the Navy The only regret that I have getting into coaching is missing a lot of my kids and their lives right? You know, you have 45 kids here that that you're in charge of and following their lives and your work your work in season you work a lot they work from you know 630 In the morning till eight o'clock at night. And you know, when the kids were young you missed a lot you Miss Miss dinners, right? You got home to put them to bed read them a book but you missed athletic events, gymnastics meats, soccer games, right across get you missed all that and those things you don't get back again over time. You know, as I get older into high school, especially my own kids, I was able to kind of back off a little bit and what I did and change our plan. like to schedule around a little bit to be able to see them compete and be with them a little bit more now with with my wife who is, you know, every coach has the best assistant in the world. And that that's, that's their wife. And really she's the head coach at home, right? So it was, it's really hard to in a relationship to leave the office and leave everything there, you bring everything with you as a coach. And so that probably took me more time than anything is to try to separate what I was doing here, the emotions that I had here, and then go home and be a husband and be a father and take care of the emotions and the feelings and everything at home. Not easy, right? Not easy. And again, it that that that is probably even now still a work in progress that, you know, you still have the desire when you coach, right to do the best job you possibly can. That's probably everybody. Right? I think that that's in coaching. And there's times where you still sacrifice your family time for what you do what you do here in the office and what you do here on the field.[PB4]
Paul Barnett 16:24
I wanted to talk a bit about emotional control, actually, because of this. I have another really interesting quote from you. And you say, I conduct myself the same way. Whether we're 15 Oh, oh, oh, 15. A coach the same? I approach it the same? I'm no different. It sounds great on paper. And I'm just wondering,
Greg Cannela 16:45
it's a lot easier. It's a lot easier when you're 15. You know,
Paul Barnett 16:48
yeah, I guess it would be and it must take a lot of emotional control to to not be too high and not be too low. And I'm wondering what you've learned about the importance of remaining consistent of having this emotional control in good times and bad times when it comes to leadership?
Greg Cannela 17:07
Yeah, especially early on, I probably overreacted to many of the situations, whether it be conduct team conduct, the effort that the team was giving, what we were doing out there on the field, our performances, right, in games, right, losing, losing, losing my cool. So I think over time you learn, you know, to that, that everyone's looking at you, every player is looking at you, and how are you going to respond to these situations. And if you respond accordingly, they'll relax and they'll they'll fall in? And they'll be fine. Right? But if you've if you lose it, right? Whether that's with officials, or whether that's with the team itself, and stop coaching them, they're gonna fold right, they're not going to give a great effort. So stay the course. Right, you learn to stay the course you learn to understand and believe in the process. Right, there's a process. For us, it's it's, you know, a yearly process from September until May. For our players, it's a four year process, right? For us as coaches. It's, it's it's not only an every year process, but it's a career process. So you have to believe in that. [PB5]
You know, just remember what, what, what, what got you there, right. And, and we always talk about whether we win or whether we lose. Obviously, there's things that we can't control. So sometimes the ball bounces the wrong way for us, right, or somebody makes on the other team makes an incredible play. We can't control that. Right, what controls us and and what we do talk about in those situations. 1501 15 where lose is, is the Alamo, right? And what is our Alamo, right? Where do we, after a game? Where do we go back to what do we fall back on to? Or what are our core values that we can fall back onto? And we're very specifically in what those are from, you know, from year to year, the team kind of establishes those we have our own as a program. But it's something that it's a reminder for the guys again, whether you win, and then whether you lose, listen, you lose a game, and hopefully we can be more successful than that. But if you lose, hey, let's regroup. Where are we? This is who we are let's let's not forget that we win. We have to do the same thing. That's our that's our responsibility. Let's not forget who we are right? Because if we feel like we're something that we're not when we get low to high, high on our horse, someone's gonna knock us down. So again, You know, don't tell what you believe in, hang in there, right, win, win or lose. Right? Go back to the Alamo and revisit those core values.[PB6]
Paul Barnett 20:11
That was about the Alamo. And the core values that are keeping the tent in the middle of.
Greg Cannela 20:18
Yeah, there's a lot of them. But I think in general, here at UMass, it's one of hard work. Right. It's, it's, it's something that we can't get around, you know, I was raised that way. You know, we're blue collar family, my dad was a teacher, my mom was, didn't work, that there was five of us five boys. So, you know, it wasn't, you know, upper crust stuff, right. And so you learn to work hard, you learn to go mow lawns, and make some extra money or shovel walks in the wintertime. And so, I can't help but portray that, right? That that's, that's who I am. So that's, that's the way we're going to be. But we also want a group that's has a tremendous attitude, towards success, right. And that can be in everything that can be towards our education, right? That can be us in relationships, that can be us, you know, in practice, in a weight room, everywhere, right, and have a really, really good attitude and a positive attitude about what we're doing, and know, know why we're doing it. But also, it's a, it's it, we need to be together group. And I think I mentioned that, each and every year, the leadership has to pull us together where we can, and if someone kind of slips out of that, we have the ability to pull them back in. And, and really keep everybody together on that. And and I think that kind of fosters a never give up attitude, you know, if if, if I can, you know, as a coach or a player, if I can influence the team in a positive manner, where you, Paul return and look at me and go, because a Greg, I will never, ever give up. Right. And, and, and, you know, the next person is doing that for somebody else. If we're that together, you know, we're going to be successful, regardless of what the scoreboard says. So, hopefully, we had that. And then I think the last thing is, the relationships. I spoke a little bit about it before developing those relationships, but we wanted to be authentic. And I think that with this generation that we're coaching now, with all the everything that's going on, on social media, these these guys are influenced by so many people, and so many things out there, that when they have conversations, if they have conversations, let's have authentic conversations, let's talk about each other's families. Let's talk about what we're interested in. Let's talk about what we love, what we embrace. Let's talk about how we feel today, let's talk about how we're getting ready for the game and be really true to those relations so that we actually know somebody. And, you know, when when game time comes. And, you know, you and I are standing next to each other in the game, and the Spam is hitting the fan, right? And we're not doing well we look at each other when we all we have to do is nod and smile. And we got this right. And that's that's really, I think what every coach wants, I really do. But certainly that's what we try to foster the best that we can as coaches here.
Paul Barnett 23:45
Great. You've got such a smile on your face as you talk to the values of the team. And on the minute ago, you talked about being the same, whether it's 15 to know and Oh 15. But I wanted to ask you, when do you feel most productive as a leader?
Greg Cannela 24:04
Well, I would say and truly feel this way when I see guys 567 10 years later, right? And they are and they talk to me about they introduce me to their kids. Or they talk about their families
Paul Barnett 24:31
Yeah,
Greg Cannela 24:32
that's what does it for me, right? You know, how they've moved on and been so successful.
Paul Barnett 24:40
I can see the pure emotion and energy as you talk about it. But I'd like to maybe switch gears because I've got another quote from me that caught my eye. And you say, I think for a lot of people, especially a lot of young coaches that have played at a high level, it's difficult because they're always comparing them players to themselves, or the past and former teammates. Now, you were an All American, and you played at a high level. So it made me wonder what biases you've had to learn to control most as a coach?
Greg Cannela 25:17
Yeah, it's probably again, as I mentioned before, that, you know, don't judge, right? Get to know get to know people, right? You know, you may, you may have a perception of a young person in semester one and semester eight, that may be totally different, because they've gone from 18 years old to 22 years old, during that time, and there's a ton of growth, right. And, you know, to us as coaches, growth is paramount, right. And you have to sometimes even, I would say, put yourself in their shoes, right, and live their life for a day and imagine what they're going through in terms of the academic workload, and the athletic workload, and they're in relationships, everything else that's going on in their lives, you know, for our seniors, you know, looking for jobs and, and worried about the future. But really, again, allow yourself to get to know those people and try not to compare yourself to them, or try not to compare other players team, as you mentioned, as it's unfair. [PB7]
Again, the people, you can use them as examples, right, especially with when you talk about certain individuals, and maybe what their work rate was, or the you know, their attitude was are tremendous added to their leadership ability was. But again, you can talk about it, but don't compare, because I think it's unfair. And I think it puts a lot of pressure on certain individuals, they may feel like they have to live up to this. And sometimes, and I think because of UMass and the tremendous tradition that that was before me. And since some guys come in feeling that pressure, right, that they already are aware of, not the ghosts, but the people that were here before them. And it you know, as we talk about their responsibility to not only respect those folks, but also to represent those folks, that can be a lot for a guy that's, that's 1718 years old, right to take in while they're transitioning. So again, talk to him have a great relationship with them, right, rather than rather than compare them constantly to others.
Paul Barnett 27:49
Talk about this great tradition that you miss. Imagine there must be a lot of pressure on you and the team to make sure that you're bringing in the right people. How do you balance the trade offs? The choices amongst character, ability and potential?
Greg Cannela 28:09
Another great question, Paul, you know, you have to fight the urge a lot, right?
Number one for us his character. You know, it's we want kids who care. And kids who really are interested in becoming part of this tradition here at the university. Right. ability has to be there, obviously, right? We want to play at a high level. The competitive nature and ability have to go hand in hand, you're gonna have all the ability in the world. But if you're not competitive, you won't get any better. So typically, when we recruit, if we feel a a kid is very, very competitive, but maybe a little raw right for us and needs time to develop. If he's a worker, eventually he's gonna surpass the guy that it maybe has more ability than him but doesn't work as hard. So that's really what we're interested in seeing as well. And you always see potential in players right there's something about certain guys maybe it's their size, maybe it's their motor right? Maybe it's just their attitude and effort that you see when you watch them play and how they greet their teammates and what type of teammate there are. So again, if you can combine the three great, very difficult, but character has to be number one because it and any team sport. [PB8]
You look at basketball, you know football, we were talking about Australian rules football before As the team has to take precedent, right? No one is above the team. No one's above, you know, is bigger than the team. And if if you get a bunch of guys that are unselfish in nature, that are also competitive and humble. It for us in lacrosse, there's still only one ball that doesn't change from high school to have two balls, right. And you have to play team offense and you have to play team defense. And you have to be part of something that's bigger than you and you have to be willing to mention Eagles before put aside your ego for the betterment of the team. That's how we're going to be successful here at UMass. And I think when you get strong character, people who care about who they represent not just the university, or our program and alums, but their families and their hometowns, their teachers and home, their coaches at home. They you know, when they get here, they know they represent those folks. Even Even if you know they're in the paper, and it's UMass men's lacrosse player. All those people at home, are extremely proud to read that. So that's that's part of their responsibility as well to represent them in a first class manner as it is for us.
Paul Barnett 31:21
I think one of the fascinating things about talking to you is you're one of the longest tenured coaches in the D one programs nationally in America yet, you're heading into your I've got my math, right, is it 28 years
Greg Cannela 31:32
20. This is a 29 years that head coach, and my 31st year here at the university,
Paul Barnett 31:40
I mean, it's it's an amazing level of longevity. And you would have seen so many ups and downs and sideways and successes and failures. But also through that period, there must have been times when your energy dipped and your focus dipped. And I'm wondering, I mean, maybe there wasn't, if there was there was how did you manage to reset yourself? Was there anything that you did that worked really well?
Greg Cannela 32:12
Number one, I leaned on my family when I had those opportunities, right? To go home, and it felt when the kids were young, they didn't, they had no idea if we won or lost, or I was bummed out about something or up about something that they didn't care. Their love was unconditional. And as well as my wife. So you lean on those folks, you lean on each other as a staff as well, right? We're in this together as a staff. And, you know, if something's going wrong, or we're not operating at an optimal level, then we have to try to stick together, just as we ask our team to stick together and fight through it. Because I think most athletics, it's very cyclical, right. So in the fall, when we come back in the fall, after a long summer, right, you get energized in the summer, you do a lot of recruiting, but you do get some time off and some family time. And then falls energizing, because it's a new team and you have new players and it's you know, we're, we're practicing, but that really doesn't count to anything, you know, in terms of wins and losses. So it's energizing. And then the month of December, around the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, you sort of get yourself ready for what's going to happen in January in season and reenergize there. And, again, spring is is, is a grind, it's difficult. But again, you don't have a lot of time to to, you know, to, to kind of sit back and just exhale. You know, we talked about that all the time, guys, this is not the right time to exhale, right? We're still inhale and we exhale when the season's over. But then you get that in the summer, right, where you can regenerate your batteries and, you know, focus a little bit on recruiting and look to the future.
Paul Barnett 34:12
Talked about your family in that answer. And I understand you've got two children. Vance as a junior if my research was correct, and I'm wondering as they step out into the world and start taking on building careers, and moving towards leadership positions of their own. What advice if any, do you have for them?
Greg Cannela 34:34
Yeah, so some of the advice goes on heard right. Not only when they were teenagers, but now they're in their 20s. So I think they may be listening to mom and dad a little bit more now than they did 10 years ago.
But I would say don't try to be somebody else. Be yourself, right? Be who you are. There's so many ways to lead a In this life, and I think for my kids is, number one would be to lead by example, you know, when I taught them lead by example always right? Because I think that's the number one thing if you're in the workplace, that when people are watching if you're doing things, right, if you are a professional, if you're energetic, people are gonna follow you. But they're it's also contagious, and people will join you. And that's really what you want to do. That's what leadership is it's not, you know, barking orders. It's having people join you, and big become part of your team and become part of what you believe in.[PB9]
Paul Barnett 35:43
Maybe one last question, if I could, Greg, before I let you get back to your your, your day of weights and training and getting ready for the season ahead. But 29th season, let's say there's 20 more to go. So distant, distant.
Greg Cannela 35:58
I'm not sure about that. Well, at
Paul Barnett 36:01
some point, you may retire, or maybe you never will. But we talked about it a little bit earlier. But I'd like to circle back and ask you the question directly. What's the legacy that you hope you've left with all of these these wonderful men? And I guess some women to that have been through your program?
Greg Cannela 36:20
Hi, yeah. As I mentioned before, you know, number one, core value is hard work, right? Work hard, good things will come. Right, focus, focus on what's important to you, right? Believe in the people around you, that is supporting you. But also possess a certain amount of integrity, personal integrity, and professional integrity. Right, again, do things right. You know,
I've always tried to have that integrity as a person, but also as a coach and treating people I was treated you know, by coach Garver. Incredibly fair, right. He was fair to everybody. He treated you like they were You were his son. You know. And, you know, I hope that that the players feel the same. And everybody that's come across here, coaches, players, the young woman that that I've worked in our office, the young men that have worked in our office as well feel the same way and feel like that. We treated them you know, with respect and gratitude for for what they do for us.[PB10]
Paul Barnett 37:41
Greg, it's been great chatting with you and learning a little bit more about UMass and the great program you've got going on there, and I wish you all the best for the season ahead.
Greg Cannela 37:51
Thanks so much, Paul. It's gonna be exciting. So we're looking forward to it. Appreciate it.