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Learn More About Coach P

Joanne “Coach P” McCallie, former NCAA Division I women’s basketball head coach for 28 years, has taken on her greatest role yet. She is forging a path to destigmatizing mental health and is coaching those afflicted to paths for full and productive lives. She knows what worked for her as an elite coach under national scrutiny while protecting her secret—a mental health diagnosis hidden across years of her career so as not to impede her success or impact her family’s livelihood.

In her high-energy speeches and leadership seminars, Coach P engages, educates and inspires with discussions on mental health, sports, faith and leadership. She specifically crafts each talk to be in alignment with the culture and dynamics of each audience. It has been cited that likely 50% of the American population suffers from some form of a mental health issue. Expand that percentage when including the impact of those surrounding each of us. Coping and thriving is not unlike sports—it requires a game plan, a playbook, drills and muscle memory. There are ways to foul out—and there are ways to better our own stats and performances while thriving personally. 

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Speech Topics

  • Techniques: The “I" Test
    For Coach P, building a winning team or achieving success is not about focusing on the outcome. Instead, it’s a process that not only applies to business and sports but also mental health. Coach P calls her technique The “I” Test. This leadership/success program is what she used throughout her years of coaching and continues to utilize today. It ties passion and response to Emotional IQ with inspiration. In this motivational and highly informational talk, Coach P explains The “I” Test system and how it can be used for individual development, team cohesion and growth.

  • Choice Not Chance: Building a Fierce Competitor
    When Coach P was leading the women’s basketball team at the University of Maine, she created a program she called “Choice Not Chance.” It was based on her philosophy that you are a product of your choices, both big and small. And if you make the right choice, you can make a difference in your life. Using this idea, along with her staff and players, Coach P took the Maine program from nothing and built it into a very competitive team.  In fact, she started to outdraw the men's team, a rarity in college sports. Maine went from drawing 800 fans a game to 5,800, a sellout crowd. It worked so well, Coach P wrote a book about it: Choice Not Chance: Building a Fierce Competitor. Drawing on Coach P’s experiences at Maine and Duke and throughout her career, as well as her memoir, this talk gives you the tools to become a fierce competitor, such as going against the grain, never becoming satisfied and why it’s critical to enjoy getting better daily.

  • Stories Over Stigmas From The Secret Warrior
    Coach P understands firsthand the toll mental illness can take on someone because she has experienced it herself. At 30 years old, while coaching women’s basketball at the University of Maine, she was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. It’s something she’s been dealing with ever since. And yet, she believes deep in her soul that a diagnosis does not define your destiny. And she has proven it. Coach P is one of the most highly decorated female college basketball coaches in the country. In this moving talk based on her best-selling book, The Secret Warrior, Coach P shares her mental health journey through the realities and challenges within the sports world. Using the recurring theme of "stories over stigmas" to reduce misconceptions associated with impaired mental health, Coach P offers real direction and personal stories to teach and reassure those adversely affected by the dynamics of the mind and body experience. Motivational and heartfelt, this talk drives home the need for more education, action and an overall change to the narrative about brain health.

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Contact me today to learn how you can bring Coach P to your organization!

Brenda Kane, Senior Vice President
617.614.1607 | bkane@apbspeakers.com


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