The Four Coaches: How a leader can change everything

This is dedicated to Coach Michael Wech, whom we lost in 2022. He was the start of the path I took in life more than 30 years ago and I owe a core belief that I hold - that I am capable and worthy - to him.

After stepping off the stage at a recent event, a person approached me, curious but serious, and asked, “What’s the single most important factor for success in any field?” That question hung heavy in the air. Saturday night, under dim lighting, with conversations buzzing around us—my mind raced back through three decades of training rooms, classrooms, boardrooms, and breakthroughs.

I’ve spent years competing and succeeding in some of the world’s most intense sport and business environments. Through those years, I’ve learned there are countless intrinsic factors driving success: mindset, skill, resilience, decision-making. These are crucial and personal, yet one external factor rises above them all. And after years of reflecting on my journey, it’s clear to me that it’s not a skill or a lucky break or even one’s own relentless drive.

If there’s one thing that defines success, it’s finding the right coach. The right mentor—someone who believes in you, who sets high standards, and who has a relentless commitment to pushing you to be your best—can change everything. I want to briefly share the stories of four of them, not as a highlight reel of my life, but as the single most important thread that holds it all together. Likely, I’ll dive deeper in the future on each one of these incredible human beings - but for now, I want to share what I’ve learned and how they’ve shaped me as a person.

Mike Wech – Humility

It was the 1990’s at City Honors School, a public school in Buffalo, NY. I was just a kid with a passion for sports, but there was a hunger in me to achieve something real. Coach Wech was my gym teacher and track coach. He easily could have claimed me as “his athlete.” By 1994, my junior year, I’d broken nearly every track record at the school; I could’ve been his crowning achievement.

Instead, Coach Wech did something that would define his humility—and set me on the path to greatness. He recognized his limitations and encouraged me, sometimes even pushed me, to seek out the best training available in our area. Every day, he allowed me to leave practice early, to drive thirty minutes to the suburbs and work with other coaches, Jim Garnham and Pat Wyatt, who he understood could help me reach my full potential. It was a choice that could have threatened his own pride, but he chose my success over his own ego. I’ll never forget that humility, a trait I try to carry with me to this day.

Humility in a leader builds a kind of trust that’s rock solid. Coach Wech’s choice changed my life. He didn’t just set me up to be a better athlete—he showed me the power of stepping aside, of seeing the bigger picture, and allowing someone else’s expertise to lift others higher.

Jim Garnham and Pat Wyatt – Tenacity and Precision

The thirty-minute drive north to Sweet Home High School brought me to the doors of two of the most important figures in my life: Coaches Jim Garnham and Pat Wyatt. When they first saw me compete, they approached my dad with an offer. They told him that I needed to be training with them if I was serious about becoming a champion. But my dad, a public school teacher, didn’t have the resources to pay for the training these coaches could provide.

Garnham and Wyatt wouldn’t hear of it. They simply told my dad to send me out there five days a week, that they’d make me a champion, and money wasn’t going to stand in the way. And so, I began my journey with them, learning a level of tenacity and precision that has stayed with me my entire life.

Training with Garnham and Wyatt wasn’t easy. Every single angle, every movement, every habit was scrutinized. They were relentless, and they taught me to be relentless, too. Under their coaching, I didn’t just get faster or stronger. I became a national champion. I went from being a solid athlete to a standout, thanks to their uncompromising commitment to excellence. It was here that I learned that greatness isn’t a given. It’s something you build through repetition, through breaking yourself down to your core and trusting in the process laid out by people who see potential in you that you’re only beginning to see in yourself.

I’m often asked what sets elite athletes apart, and my mind goes back to those drives north, the grueling training with Garnham and Wyatt. Without their relentless tenacity and attention to every small detail, there wouldn’t have been a national title. There wouldn’t have been scholarship offers. I likely wouldn’t have landed at the University of Florida or made it to the Olympics. But great leaders don’t just push you toward achievement—they shape who you become by showing you how to commit fully to the work, they teach you about the details, to trust the process, and to let nothing fall short of excellence.

Jerry Clayton – Belonging and Serendipity

Arriving at the University of Florida was a new world. I wasn’t a special national champion here—I was just one of many champions and closer to the bottom of the bell curve than the top, part of the number one recruiting class in the country. I was surrounded by incredible athletes, and yet, despite that, Coach Jerry Clayton had a way of making me feel like I belonged. He saw me, he understood me, and he spent hours with me—watching video, analyzing technique, talking about life as much as track. His wife, Becky, would have me over for dinner, and their warmth created a family atmosphere that I didn’t realize I needed so much.

When Coach Clayton left for Auburn during my junior year, I was devastated. But he didn’t just leave—he took the time to talk to me, to explain why he was making the move. His transparency and honesty softened the blow, and I remember thinking, “If I could be that honest in my own decisions, maybe I could be half the coach he is.” But before he left, Coach made his other lasting mark on me – casually comparing me to a former track athlete-turned-bobsledder of his, Rob Olsen, when Rob made the 1998 Winter Olympic bobsled team.

A couple years later, I accepted Coach’s offer of a graduate assistant position at Auburn, but right around the same time I sent a post-surgery, pain killer-infused Hail Mary email to the U.S. Olympic Committee. Without Coach Clayton, I don’t think I would have ever known that bobsledding was even an option.

Sometimes, it’s not the grand gestures that leave the deepest impact—it’s the subtle nudges, the offhand comments, and the quiet belief that you belong on a bigger stage. Great leaders create that sense of belonging and keep an eye on the moments that might, in time, change everything. They see your potential long before you do, knowing that sometimes it’s serendipity, combined with steadfast belief, that opens the door to something extraordinary.

Steve Thomas – Hard Truths

My relationship with Coach Steve Thomas was rocky. I’d be lying if I said he was my favorite coach. We clashed constantly, and he’s the reason I nearly quit track altogether. For me, he was the opposite of Coach Clayton after he left. But for all his faults, I can finally look back and say something good about him—Coach Thomas wasn’t afraid to deliver the hard truths. One day, he and our athletic trainer approached me after practice to tell me the news. I’d been banned from the training room. Three and a half years of constant injury, using up resources, and frankly, not performing to the standards I should’ve been meant I was cut off from my comfort drip. They’d had enough.

Coach Thomas delivered that news with a firmness I resented at the time. But looking back, I see the empathy and the hard reality in his words. That moment forced me to confront my limitations and my attachment to my comfort zones. Without it, I wouldn’t have been ready to move into the next chapter of my life and tell myself hard truths when I needed them. Leaders know when enough is enough, and sometimes they’re the ones to push you off a ledge you’re not brave enough to leave.

Stu McMillan – Being a Student, a Partner, and the Virtue of Sacrifice

A few years later, I moved to Calgary, Canada, to train with Stu McMillan. By then, I’d outgrown the youthful need to call my coach “coach,” but I couldn’t have predicted the depth and impact this coaching relationship would have on my life. Stu was one of the best in the world - a disciple of legendary track coach Dan Pfaff, the man behind Canadian Donovan Bailey’s world-record-breaking Olympic gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics—an event my family and I had the unforgettable experience of watching live.

The list of things I learned from Stu—about sport, performance, philosophy, friendship, and living with purpose—could fill a book. The peak of my coaching experiences came from our seven years together, and I can say without reservation: without Stu, there would be no gold medal in 2010.

Stu exemplifies what it means to be a student of one’s craft, and he taught me to do the same. We were always learning, always seeking out the best experts in every field we touched: John Berardi in nutrition, Gordon Bosworth in movement, Jeremy [last name] in the art of physiotherapy, and countless others. Stu’s approach was never about his ego or needing to have the best idea; it was simply about finding what would make us better.

When times were tough, Stu was relentless in his commitment. Even after leaving Team USA, he continued to train us, at-times without pay when our resources were low. His dedication showed us the depth of his belief in our potential—he was all in, and everything else was secondary.

Great leaders role-model the essentials: continuous learning, true partnership, respect, and sacrifice for a purpose greater than themselves.

——

These coaches weren’t just influential—they were essential. Each of them taught me lessons that extended far beyond sport and are part of who I am. They instilled humility, precision, belonging, truth, and partnership in me, qualities that form the bedrock of any success I’ve had. The single most critical factor in any journey is finding the right coach, the person who believes in you, who invests in you, and who shows you the way forward, even when you can’t see it yourself.

In my experience, there is no success in sport or life without learning from others. There is no factor more powerful than finding the right coach and allowing them to shape your path in sport, business, or life.

- Steve