“You don’t coach baseball. You coach kids.”

That’s the advice Kevin Connors, MCC lead and Managing Director of the Susan Crown Exchange, received early in his coaching career—and it changed everything about how he showed up for his players.

Kevin joined the Hoop Heads Podcast to dig into what quality coaching actually looks like in practice: why knowing a player’s name matters as much as knowing the plays, how coaches can support young people through real mental health challenges, and why training alone isn’t enough—coaches need community, mentorship, and organizational support to sustain the work.

He also talked about what comes next for the Million Coaches Challenge now that we’ve hit the one million mark—building the systems-level change that makes quality coaching the standard, not the exception.

Listen to the full episode here: https://youtu.be/juUbCxZ1HAI?si=765ClOn2sl-XrA_A