On this episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, host Connor Agnew talks with Wakeman Chemell, Graduate Assistant at Dallas Baptist University. They discuss Wakeman’s shift from soccer to strength & conditioning, managing anxiety, the importance of internships, and how to set goals with real purpose. Wakeman unpacks his approach to building positive environments for athletes and stresses the fundamentals of professionalism—being on time, dressing for the job you want, and constantly improving your craft.
Key Takeaways
- Transitioned from soccer to strength & conditioning.
- Faced significant social anxiety, overcame it by diving into experiences.
- Internships were essential for learning and growth.
- Goal setting starts by being honest about your reasons.
- A positive environment drives athlete motivation.
- Initiative is key to standing out as a young coach.
- Professionalism means showing up on time and prepared.
- Relationships with athletes are foundational.
- Always work to evolve coaching methods.
- Dress and carry yourself for the position you aspire to.
Quote
“I definitely feel the fear a lot when I’m going into a new environment… And my way to get around it is just, you dive into it all the way.”
— Wakeman Chemell
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Wakeman Chemell:
I definitely feel the fear a lot when I’m going into a new environment, definitely. And it’s almost like paralyzing. And part of that, that’s part of the reason why, like, okay, I’ll make, I’ll make some mistakes at first because I’m just too nervous. And I just, I don’t think I just, I’m weird at first. Like, I don’t know what to do. And, ⁓
And then my way to get around is just you dive into it all the way.
Connor Agnew:
What’s going on Sampson Strength Coach collective listeners? On today’s episode, have Wakeman Shamel, graduate assistant at Dallas Baptist University. Wakeman, thanks so much for coming on, man. I appreciate it. Dude, I’m stoked too. From one blonde guy to another, luscious locks. I love them. ⁓ Blonde.
Wakeman Chemell:
I’m excited for it.
Yeah.
Connor Agnew:
Adult
males are a rare breed. So this is an episode for me.
Wakeman Chemell:
We’re letting it grow out right now and we’re going to decide what to do with it before I go back to DBU.
Connor Agnew:
You got to go full mullet. You’ve got no choice. Fair enough. Well, give us ⁓ a full rundown of your experience in strength and conditioning, what got you interested in it, and then what’s brought you to Dallas Baptist.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s gonna work for me. Yeah.
So my time in strength and conditioning is my, I have the least time as a coach in strength and conditioning ⁓ overall in terms of my coaching career. So I started out coaching youth soccer, club soccer in Shreveport, Louisiana. And I think they wanted me to come out and just be a body out there to make sure they could rally these kids at a summer camp one time.
And I remember my first job, somebody didn’t show up. So I had a group of like 38 year olds and it was, I don’t know what happened or what it was, but I loved it. I thought it was the most fun thing ever. And from there, I got really serious about coaching. I knew I wasn’t going to be a professional soccer player. didn’t have the talent. And so I kind of leaned into coaching all the way. And then after
about five years of coaching soccer. I just wanted to do strength and conditioning. That was what I went to school for. Growing up, going to the gym with my dad, ⁓ being around people way more athletic than me, it’s like, okay, why? ⁓ Why is it like that? Why am I so slow? So there was that. And so after being put as Academy Director for the club I was at,
⁓ I saw an opportunity to be an intern at D1 Shreveport. So that was my first internship. So I’d show up there really early. It was my first time, my first exposure to the 4 a.m. and that was fun. So that was an adjustment. And then after two months of interning there, he said that if you want a job here starting in the summer, you can. And so…
just certain things happen and it was like, okay, this is the best option for me. This is what I want to do. And I know I’m a good coach. Can I translate that to what my main passion is? And so I worked there, started working with the rookies because he knew I had experience with younger kids. And it was funny because I’ve been writing a letter to Meg Stone. There’s been a draft in my folders for about
three months because watching her presentation with Swordenex and watching her talk about her journey was, it’s like a light bulb flickered and I was like, okay, I want to try collegiate strength and conditioning. No idea how to do that. And then all of a sudden on my Instagram, an internship opportunity with the University of Pittsburgh came up. And I’m like, okay, I’ve never left Louisiana.
much less going all the way across the country. And then I ended up interviewing for that, did really well in the interview and got that internship, moved out there, had to find a place to live, barely got it on the way there when I signed the lease. then, um, and that experience was, was different. I don’t know if you know coach Brenda McDonald, but she is amazing. Um, definitely helped me through that internship and taught me so much there. Um, Devin Young.
Connor Agnew:
you
Wakeman Chemell:
Coach Steph Mock Grubbs or Coach Mock at the time was there and it was just an amazing environment that really solidified, okay, I want to do this collegiate strength conditioning thing. And so from there, I did an internship at Duquesne. Then from there, I got my first graduate assistant position at St. Francis University. And then after a year there, was like, okay, number one, I want to grow in my faith more as a Christian. And so…
I saw something on Shrinko’s job network. Shout out to that because without that I wouldn’t be doing anything. ⁓ Interview for Dallas Bads is now I’m here. So just finished my first year there.
Connor Agnew:
That’s awesome. And I love hearing your experience, especially it’s always interesting to me when people start off as sport coaches, then they translate it into strength and conditioning. And we actually had a guest on the show just last week, Andrew Rafferty, and he was talking about how he was a sport coach. then something about strength and conditioning just kind of pulled at him and just made him interested in actually becoming a strength and conditioning coach. What was that thing for you? I mean, obviously you said you were able to become Academy director. You’re in a great spot, but ultimately your goal was to be in strength and conditioning.
what drew you to the profession? What made you decide after five years? Okay, this is definitely what I want to do.
Wakeman Chemell:
Well, I think part of it was I was always weak. So I graduated high school at 140 pounds. And so ⁓ that wasn’t cool at all. And then I went into, I had a friend who ran track in high school. He ended up running track at Tulane, but he was with me at LSU Shreveport for a year. And if you know LSU Shreveport, they have a phenomenal Olympic development center ⁓ for weightlifting.
And so he was going in there and I was like, I’ll work out. Had no idea that it was completely different and went in there and was like, okay, I really am weak. Like these, some of these dudes are freaks. Like it was, it was insane. And so I went in there, I was training and I wasn’t really consistent yet just cause I was still coaching soccer. So I didn’t have time to really go in at the time they were open. ⁓ I had class, all that stuff, but the times I did go in there, I had a really formative experience of just like, Hey, you know,
stop doing this, stop doing that. Here’s how you actually act in a gym like this. And just something about being around all those people and having Dr. Kyle Pierce as a professor. yeah, ⁓ that experience definitely was the start, you know, my real introduction to Olympic weightlifting.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah. I mean, LSU Streetport is historic. It’s known as a really great program. That’s where Kendrick Ferris trained out of, Yup. Yup. And they did, is Bill Starr still involved there? Am I wrong on that one?
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah.
Yes, yes, yeah.
I’m
not sure. know it’s, I know Aaron, Coach Aaron’s there and he’s doing a great job there as well. So yeah.
Connor Agnew:
That’s it. mean,
what an awesome place to walk into, you know, and then understand that there’s a lot of history behind it. Like those experiences to me are so cool and straining conditioning where, like you said, you go in, you don’t even know that this is like a world-class program where Olympians have trained out of, and then you’re coming in first time and just trying to knock it out yourself. That’s awesome.
Wakeman Chemell:
I had no idea. No idea. But that’s
something that I love about. Pretty much everything that I’ve done, I’ve had no idea what it’s actually going to be like. And I just do it. Right? I figured out along the way, I hit some bumps, but you you figure it out. And yeah, I feel lucky to have not known anything about it going in.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, you almost could have been intimidated going in, I imagine.
Wakeman Chemell:
Absolutely. Yeah, so I have have a really bad social anxiety really really bad social anxiety like and one of the ways I get around is just dive into stuff. So whether it’s funny I met I met one of the other interns at Arkansas and we made eye contact and that’s one of my triggers where I have to go up to you now and say something or else I’m never going to do it. It’s really it’s really interesting. ⁓
Connor Agnew:
Yeah. ⁓
Wakeman Chemell:
And I remember he said that he’s like, I don’t, you just like started marching at me and like came up, Hey, what’s your name? So, ⁓ it’s definitely, I definitely feel the fear a lot when I’m going into a new environment, definitely. And it’s almost like paralyzing. And part of that, that’s part of the reason why, like, okay, I’ll make, I’ll make some mistakes at first because I’m just too nervous. And I just, I don’t think I just, I’m weird at first. Like, I don’t know what to do. And, ⁓
And then my way to get around is just you dive into it all the way.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, you know, I’ve had almost the same experience. I think back to my time at Tennessee when I first started interning there, one of my friends, one of my best friends now, he’s a groomsman at my wedding, we were texting and talking about how, I asked him about how somebody was doing at his job and he said, you know, she’s okay. And I was like, bro, you don’t like anybody when you first meet them. And I was like, but then you get to know them and you love everybody. And then we were joking about how if you’ve ever seen step brothers, how they were at the start and then by the end they end up becoming best friends.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Connor Agnew:
And then I think back to the director at the time too, it was one of my main mentors. He was like, I thought you were a really weird dude for like the first month. Like you have to really learn how to, in this career, especially with how much you move, exactly how to interact with people and how to get better at it. Like, you, have you felt your skills get better? Have you felt that anxiety kind of, ⁓ you know, go at bay a little bit as you’ve gone through all these spots? Cause I mean, you’ve gone from, like you said, Academy Soccer to Pitt to SFU, now DBU like.
Do you feel like your skills have gotten better through that process?
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah, 1000 % the skills have gotten better. Does the fear or anxiety go away? I would say almost never. Almost certainly never. I think that’s just a trait that I’m always gonna have, so I always just have to, I just deal with it. But yeah, my soft skills have improved dramatically. Dramatically. So I think that’s one of my strengths now, which is interesting.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, that’s awesome, right? You turn a weakness into a strength or a perceived weakness into a strength. I always question on the other side too, right? I’ve got terrible ADHD, right? That’s kind of something I’ve dealt with my entire life. ⁓ And one of the things, it actually helps me, feel like read people, right? Like, cause they talk about pattern recognition, you can understand and read people a little bit better. I feel like my sixth sense is like meeting people within five minutes, I can tell you, you know, ⁓
about 90 % about that person, right? Like, what do you feel like? you, cause I do feel like there’s always on a flip side to something like anxiety, there’s always a kind of a benefit to it. Do you feel like there’s any benefit you have or any kind of like secret superpower it’s given you?
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah.
I I’ve been through so many situations and I’ve had to find my way through them that I can relate to you. I can relate to anybody. So although it does get hard, I think the one thing I struggle with is if someone, you know, maybe someone doesn’t or I perceive that they don’t work as hard at something or that they don’t have an ambition with something, it can still be difficult, but I can still relate to you because I feel that lack of ambition when I enter a new environment. I’m like, I want to do this.
I don’t want to do this, don’t want to do this. And I have that apathy for that split second. And so even that, it’s like, I can relate to so many different people. that’s also growing up playing soccer, growing up and then coaching soccer. There’s so many different backgrounds where there’s nationality or whatever, language barriers, everything. ⁓ Yeah, just my ability to relate to people and talk about anything. I can talk about anything. So.
Connor Agnew:
That’s awesome. And I
feel like it’s got to be like you said, a really strong benefit. But then when I think about building relationships with athletes, like that’s got to be one of the biggest things because it’s you can see people write athletes off quickly too. Right. And that’s kind of the negative side of what I do, right. Where I assess people quickly. Maybe I can write them off a little bit because of my assessment. It may be wrong. Like I feel like that helps you develop a little bit more staying power with the athletes, if I’m correct.
Wakeman Chemell:
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and when I hear something, sticks in my brain. something that our intern coordinator here, Zane Hubery, something he said last week ⁓ really hit me. And like, have these epiphanies all the time because it just sticks with me. And or I can think about a situation where it relates. He said, ⁓ we like to judge people. We like to judge others based off their actions.
But we like to judge ourselves based off our intentions. And so when even in the situations like, they don’t want to work hard. Well, maybe that’s, that’s not their intention, right? Nobody wants to lose or nobody wants to be worse. Nobody wants that. ⁓ you know, so I try to, I try to dig into what’s, what’s your intention behind this, because your intention might not line up with your action and that’s okay. But we like, then we can talk about how, how can we align?
what you are aiming for versus what actually happens.
Connor Agnew:
That’s awesome, man. I love that. it’s very wise word from a young strength coach such as yourself. Like I love your journey and what you’re doing. And, know, for those who are ⁓ listening to podcasts, they can’t see this, right? But you’ve got a bunch of Arkansas stuff in the background. You’re interning at Arkansas right now too, right? Over your summer break.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yes, so we don’t really have a lot of athletes because Dallas Bats is a division two except for baseball. So baseball is our only division one program. So everyone else has gone over the summer unless they’re local. And then I come back to Arkansas where my family lives. I try to not pay rent and make some money and try to find the opportunity to like go into a new environment. So yeah, we’re here for the summer.
Connor Agnew:
And you’re just constantly pushing the boundaries, like you said. You hate going into new environments, but it allows you to get better as a coach, so you know you gotta do it.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah, absolutely. that’s the main thing I’m coming here is my main thing wasn’t the technical side. So they can have a good grasp on the technical side of strength conditioning also, because all of it can work. So you just have to have a system behind it. But all of it can work. So I’m like, OK, the main thing I want to develop here is
What is winning look like? What does it really, really look like at an SEC level? I’ve never been to an SEC school, right? And I caught some of that at Pitt, like their track program goes hard, right? ⁓ But like, what does that look like for sports I haven’t necessarily seen that with, ⁓ or just how the other strength coaches behave, right? What does that look like? What does their attention to detail look like? ⁓ Coach Trevino at Dallas Baptist, he’s our, he’s the program director. He…
Huge on attention to detail. He holds up himself to a really high standard and I want to see like how does that? How does that look across different levels? And so that was my main thing coming here was like the personal and coaching side more so than the technical, you know
Connor Agnew:
That’s awesome. And you’re gaining really good experience from, like you said, the SEC level. But then obviously, you know, for listeners who may not be aware, like Dallas Baptist is one of the elite Division II programs. Like it’s one of the best of the best. I think back to, like you said, obviously baseball being able to play up at Division I and be a really successful program. And then you think to, I know men’s basketball, because one of our former men’s basketball players here played at Dallas Baptist ⁓ last year. And you guys went to, I think it was the Elite Eight, right? Or maybe even Final Four.
Wakeman Chemell:
I believe it was the final four, yeah. And watching that and then how, because Coach Trevino is the strength coach for them. If you ever have an opportunity to get someone on, Coach Trevino is the man. ⁓ But seeing how he kind of deals with them, how that standard is of those teams, that was great to watch this past year as well.
Connor Agnew:
No, it’s awesome. And so you’re getting this really good experience across all levels. Can you talk to me a little bit about your experience moving to Pitt? Like you said, you’ve never left Louisiana and then all of sudden you’re going to almost the exact opposite side of the country from North to South. How was that experience moving? Getting the apartment sounds crazy. It sounds like it was an intense situation.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah, so, ⁓ man. Yeah, that was just a shot in the dark. I mean, I knew somebody that was at Pitt and then one of the strength coaches, he’s now the, ⁓ I believe he’s one of the directors of the Olympic side. ⁓ Aaron Duvall, he, he trained at LSU Shreveport. Like he went to LSU Shreveport and then, also, ⁓ Coach Joey, he was a fellow at Pitt.
at the time I was applying. I guess that helped as well to like see, okay, this is another LSU S person. well, yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t, I had a feeling it would work out, but I didn’t expect it to. And so then I go through that interview process and, ⁓ man, when I got that email back, it was crazy. I got, I started, I was freaking out when coach McDonald emailed me back and that, and then I saw all these coaches who I looked up and like I saw coach mock or coach mock grubs.
Sorenexto, it’s like all these people that I’ve seen and I’m like, oh man, they’re kind of like famous and they email me back and like this is an opportunity. And so did really well in the interview, tried to make sure everything was perfect. And then I get there and I did okay at first. And then we had a couple of intern assignments that I completely did not do right.
at all. ⁓ Like they gave us a template and everything and I thought it was a suggestion. And then like I think I even turned it in late and they were like, what are you doing? You know, and they like brought me into the office and everything instead of kicking me out, you know, they were like, you have another chance. I can tell that you don’t know what you’re doing at all.
Like, you have no idea what this is, so we’re gonna show you what this is. ⁓ And, you know, like, I never had to make a schedule. Because when I was in Shreveport, it was the same thing every day for the past five years. I knew what I was doing. I didn’t need a schedule. I knew every single thing that was gonna happen every single day. And so they’re like, all right, you know what Google Calendar is? It’s like, nope, I had never used Google Calendar. ⁓
Now it’s my best friend. And I think honestly, was sounds stupid, but that might’ve been one of the best things to come out of that internship is just like, get organized, organize your schedule, organize what you have to do, do things ahead of time. And that was the start of me not procrastinating anymore. You know, and.
Connor Agnew:
That’s
not stupid at all, man. Seriously, that’s like the best experience you can get out of internships. And I’d go through the exact same thing too. Like I remember showing up late one day, because I mean, this is, I told my mentor this, you you pen my first internship. I remember laying in bed and I was like, man, I need an extra 10 minutes. Like it’s not gonna be that big of a deal if I’m late. And then I just got yelled at like to the moon. And then I remember I was like, okay, I can’t do that anymore. Right. And then the same thing, like you talk about the organization and everything like.
Ultimately, I feel like that’s how you find out if you’re meant to be a strength coach or not is can you adjust to these things? And these are basic job skills. So even if you end up not being a strength coach, now, you know, OK, well, at least I have to be organized. At least I have to be on time. At least I have to hand things in on time. These things are very valuable. And, you know, to our listeners, it’s understanding your growth in this. had the I sent you the wrong date for the Google invite. And then you’re the one who texted me and said, hey, I think we’re supposed to go next week. And then I was I was the one in the wrong. So you’ve reached the peak of organization. You passed the test.
Wakeman Chemell:
We’re still working on it. We’re still, it’s always a process. It’s always a process, but yeah, I’m really grateful for that. Very, very grateful for that. you know, I try to let people know, you know, like I’m really grateful for that experience. And I’d recommend that to anybody if you have the opportunity to drive 17 hours to Pittsburgh.
and live there. But yeah, the apartment thing, there were no apartments. And the only apartments I could find, it was like, no, we don’t want a male roommate. And I was like, okay, cool. So then I’m like searching and searching and searching. And luckily, I guess the people I ended up staying with like forced their old roommate out because he was like a strange guy or whatever. And I found it posted on Facebook. I think this is like
Connor Agnew:
Mmm.
Wakeman Chemell:
maybe a week before I it was time to drive and I think my mom asked me she’s like so you have somewhere to stay I was like yeah yeah yeah I got somewhere to stay and my plan was okay well I’ve heard about people like doing stuff like living in their cars to get this stuff done had no idea how cold it would be up there so that would have been stupid and then luckily yeah luckily right before I got there
Connor Agnew:
⁓
Wakeman Chemell:
I got the email back, signed the lease, did everything that way. that was, yeah.
Connor Agnew:
you’re getting the full strength coach experience. So that’s,
part of the process, man. I remember I was interning with the jets at the time. And then I knew I was going down to Tennessee and you know, I just was not very forward thinking. And then all of I’m a month away and I’m like, I need a place to live. Like I never figured this out. And so I remember on FaceTime, I’m on FaceTime with the landlord and he’s walking me through and I’m like, everything looks good. Like on FaceTime, you know, I’ll sign the lease and everything. I showed up and
there were like roaches in the apartment, there were holes in the floor and I had to deal with it for a year because I already signed the lease. So you’ve gotten the full experience, which is good. And then including the 17 hour drive, I feel like all strength coaches have made that at some point.
Wakeman Chemell:
And now I know, I’ve already got my lease signed for this next year. I’m ready to go. I know exactly where I’m living. The old GA was living there. I mean, not old GA, he’s still there. He’s still with us, right? He’s a gage tailor. Yeah. So I’ve already got that squared away. Learn from that experience. Yeah.
Connor Agnew:
There you go.
Hehehehe ⁓
Boom. There you go, learning from experiences
and applying to it. And so your first spot, your first GA spot was at St. Francis, is that correct? Were you there when they transitioned to D2?
Wakeman Chemell:
Yes.
⁓ I think they’re going Division 3. Yeah. And no, I was there… That was this past year. That was in the spring. Yeah, so… Yeah.
Connor Agnew:
Or D3, okay, I didn’t even know that.
Yeah, that’s just crazy deal. I wasn’t
sure if you were there for the experience because that’s just nuts.
Wakeman Chemell:
No, I left the spring before, but I did have a lot of them reach out to me, like a lot of the athletes I had, to talk about it. They were a little disappointed, but I don’t think it’s going into effect for a little bit. I don’t think it was an immediate effect.
Connor Agnew:
Okay, thanks good. Thank goodness. Because I mean, that’s a crazy situation in college athletics is in a tumultuous time now. So I’m glad that doesn’t go into effect immediately. Now, you’ve got a lot of experience going to different places, right? And you’ve moved around a lot. And I appreciate the, I guess, intensity for you to be able to go out for new experiences. Like, right, like again, pointing to you being in Arkansas, where you have the summer off at Dallas Baptist, like that stuff is important. It’s how you continue to grow, you know, for
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah.
Connor Agnew:
Stray coaches or young interns who are kind of looking to move up in the ranks or get their first GA spot or first full-time spot, what would your recommendation be to them? What would the advice that you would give to them be?
Wakeman Chemell:
There’s a lot of stuff there. think, yeah, the first thing, maybe not the first thing, but one of the big things is… ⁓
Connor Agnew:
Let’s unpack it all.
Wakeman Chemell:
Because intentions are important. We talked about that earlier. What are your intentions with this? recently, because of everything, just all the experiences I’ve had, like I’m having to reset all my goals, but I still struggle with goal setting. So now I’m reading a book called grit, which got recommended in an intern talk here with Mallory Henderlong. ⁓ so I’m reading that cause I need to get better at goal setting, right?
That’s, think, the first thing that I wish I had gotten better at was like, do I set goals, reset them? How do I cut out all the fluff? I would say that would be one of the most important things. Like, what are your intentions? What are your goals behind this? You know, cause you need to want something out of something and be honest with yourself about the selfish intentions. Be honest with yourself about the selfless intentions in your goals, right? If you…
say that you just want to help people and you want to go be a football strength coach and deep down you know that you really just want to make a lot of money to be honest with yourself about that goal because you’re going to need to every every action that you take is going to have to take you towards that goal so you have to be really honest with yourself what do i want out of this experience and am i okay with
if it doesn’t go that way. ⁓ And then how can I pivot if it doesn’t go that way? The second thing is just being a professional. So can you show up on time and what does on time mean? ⁓ Communicate with whoever your boss is going to be at that time. What does on time actually mean? Because I’ve never been somewhere that on time is on time. Right? Walmart gives a 10 minute grace period.
for their employees to get to work, that doesn’t happen ever anywhere that I’ve been. So ask them, okay, what are you expecting of me? Okay, how early do I have to show up to everything? ⁓ What do I need to do once I get into the office? What do you need anything from me this week or this upcoming week? Because it’s not on them to always tell you, I need this, this, this, right? My brother works for Amazon. He has to take initiative. Hey, what do need to do this week?
Connor Agnew:
you
Wakeman Chemell:
What responsibilities are we going through? Hey, let’s set up a team meeting. ⁓ So be a professional and communicate what the needs are going to be so that you can meet them. Because once, if you don’t know, you could say, well, it’s OK, you didn’t know, but you never asked. So that’s still your fault. So it’s not an excuse to not get the job done. And that was where I messed up at Pitt. didn’t.
Double-check I didn’t want to ask a question because I was too scared to ask question because I was anxious and Didn’t want to mess up and then I end up messing up so ask what’s expected of you and then be the professional that they need ⁓ And then Reach out to people Reach out to people I am always worried that I’m gonna bother somebody or that they’re gonna like if the only way that I can communicate to you is on Instagram, I mean, that’s the only way that I
have your contact because I can’t find your email or whatever it is or maybe that’s my generation. That’s how we like to communicate. Okay, is this person the same generation? ⁓ If not, if they’re then maybe reach out to someone that they follow, right? Like go deeper and try and find the best way to communicate to them. And then once you communicate to them, make sure it’s professional, make sure it’s good, but don’t be afraid.
Send a message if they don’t if they don’t want to respond to you Then you probably don’t want to talk to them anyways, or they’re just busy Right so reach out to people reach out to people don’t be afraid to reach out to people or you can be afraid because I’m always afraid to reach out to people but ⁓ Let that fear subside by doing the thing and just be annoying and reach out reach out reach out
Cause that’s how you’re to build your connections. Like nothing that I’ve done would have happened without talking to people. So that’s the three I can think of right now.
Connor Agnew:
That’s a great piece of advice. Seriously, I love those. And I think very appropriate for younger strength coaches. When you talk about goal setting and you want to improve your goal setting, can you just give me what your goals originally looked like? Like you said, you had to improve the process. So what did those first goals kind of look like for you? And then after you’ve learned about the goal setting process, what have those goals changed into?
Wakeman Chemell:
So, my initial goals were I want to coach high level soccer. And then that just didn’t feel right. Like that was it, that was the only goal I had. That’s what I mean, I had no idea that you had to set, there’s levels to goals, I no idea. So I’m like, okay, I wanna coach like professional soccer. And no idea how to get there because I didn’t have a process. Well then, that just didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like it was where I was supposed to be.
So then it’s like, okay, my next goal, get a strength conditioning job at D1 Treeport and get clients and coach the classes. That was it. That was the only goal I had. It was a jumbled up mess. No idea what was going on. Then I see Meg Stone’s talk. I see all the other Sorenex talks. Next goal, go get an internship in coaching or go coach in college for strength and conditioning.
had no idea what that was, so I had to do my research, and then it changed to, now let’s get an internship, because I know I’m have to get an internship first. Got the internship, and it’s just been one, it’s been like one big goal at a time, it’s abstract, and can’t really point me in any direction. So now, from the book, for example, the book says write out, start with 25 career goals, write them all out.
and circle the five that don’t lead anywhere. So if your goal leads to something else, then it’s a lower level goal. Once you reach the top goal, it’s like, why do you want to do this? Just because. It’s just what, that’s what I want. That’s your top level goal. So then I thought after the St. Francis experience, my goal is to work with track and field because I love that experience so much. And then now while I’m reading this book,
Okay, I’ve identified what I enjoyed about that experience. It wasn’t that it was track and field, it was the experience that I had while I was working with them. ⁓ being heavily involved with the team, whatever team I’m working with. ⁓
Being heavily involved with the team that I’m working with, that was something I enjoyed. Being able to talk to the coach openly about ideas and being able to try new things once I’ve gained their trust and respect. ⁓
being given different points of views, like feeling like my points were actually taken to heart and then something else being given back to me, not just like, oh yeah, that sounds good. So actual feedback and learning. So I guess learning environment, heavy involvement, and just being a part of that group. So now I’m in the process of writing out those 25 things, right?
That’s been a little hard because I think very abstractly. And so now it’s like,
I know my lower level daily goals. So that’s being a professional. Okay, show up on time every day. ⁓ Make sure that I have my programming done early. All that stuff is like my lower level goals. And I’m about to move up to the mid level goals. Right? And so I just have to find out which ones do I want to circle that are my five that I can’t live without that are the top level goals or mid level to top level goals. ⁓ And then
Figure out what’s the path to go from there and I’m lucky enough to wear like once I have that I’m my goal is to have that finished by the end of this week So that I can then take that and say, okay, how do I do this? ⁓ Like what’s the roadmap look like? So we’re still in the process of now doing it because it’s something I’ve never done. So it’s taking a while. It’s very hard to Try and do this and and set everything and okay Well, that goal is stupid. The cutting goals out is the hard part
Connor Agnew:
you
Wakeman Chemell:
Cutting stuff out is the hard part because I want to do everything all at once because I also have diagnosed ADHD and I’m all over the place sometimes. And so it’s like,
I have to be okay with letting some of this stuff go because it’s not going to serve me. And then hopefully by the end of this week, I can take that to Coach Hovry or Coach Whitney and say, okay, how do I achieve these things? So that’s where we’re at right now. It’s still a struggle because it’s a new skill, we always tell our athletes, you have to be okay not being good at something. And so why wouldn’t we listen to that themselves?
Connor Agnew:
Yeah.
Wakeman Chemell:
or listen to that ourselves. Why wouldn’t we listen to that ourselves? So this is very hard for me because I’m not good at it because I’ve never done it but I’m going to see it through to the end and figure out where I need to go from there.
Connor Agnew:
Hmm.
Yeah, I can identify with that a lot, know, trying to set a million goals at one time. Cause you know, you’re just in this process of continually trying to improve and then figuring out, okay, what are the things I actually need to focus on? What are the things that are going to actually help me get to the larger goals or the upper level goals that you’re talking about? So this all comes from the book, grit. Is that what you said?
Wakeman Chemell:
Yes, it’s Grit by Angela Duckworth. And if you can’t read for very long time, it’s not that far into the book. Like, it’s pretty much in the beginning. So it’s not hard to find. Yeah.
Connor Agnew:
Hehehehehe
Awesome. All right. Well, I think our listeners should definitely check that out. One other piece of advice that you touched on that I thought was really good was the being a professional. Obviously, like we talked about, those skills are really important when you first start out for any job. Like you said, being on time, handing things in on time, like those things matter a lot. But one thing you said that really stuck out to me was talking about initiative. And it’s interesting. And now is being on the other side of having at least 20 interns throughout my career.
I think about who were the best interns and it were the ones who, like you said, took initiative because I don’t really truly remember the ones who are, I remember everybody obviously, right? But when I think about my best interns or the ones who did the best with me, the ones that come to mind are the ones who took initiative on everything. And like you said, ask what needed to be done that week. Ask where are some things that they could do that aren’t assignments that I’ve given them. And then like you said, ask at the end of each day as well too, okay? Is there anything else I can do?
It reminds me of ⁓ one time, this is at Tennessee as well, when I stopped by coach’s office, I just said, hey coach, is there anything I can do for you before I go? And he’s like, well, you got your backpack on, seems like you’re ready to leave. So he was messing with me, right? And I was like, I get it, I get it. So I understood that basically sometimes there’s a superficial question where it’s just like, okay, I’m checking the box of saying, is there anything I can do before I go? But if I’m showing up with a backpack on, looking like I’m about to leave right now, like.
They’re not gonna, know, if I’m a full-time coach looking at somebody who’s ready to go, I’m not gonna say, can you do this for me real quick, right? But those small touch points are how you enhance your internship experience. And so I really like what you said there too. it leads me to think about full-time training conditioning as well. I think that’s a really key piece about it. And as you go throughout your career, you’ll see too, like you’ll set up a system of things that you do that work really well. And then a lot of times you’ll kind of repeat that system year after year and you’ll make some small tweaks and changes. like ultimately,
I think initiative is something that gets lost a lot with older strength coaches as well too. And once you have set systems, like is there a desire to really improve it every single time? Is there a desire to chase after things that you want to improve at or whatever the field may be changing with? I think back to Darby Rich at Texas Tech, like he told me when he was hiring a GA or an assistant for his spot at Texas Tech, he’s like, I want somebody who knows everything that I don’t like from a technology standpoint. So that way they can teach me and I can grow and get better.
Those are the strength coaches to me who continually improve. So I really appreciate you touched on the initiative piece because it’s not the only good advice for interns, it’s really good advice for full time and older strength coaches to hear as well.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah, and to be completely transparent, there’s like at Dallas Bats this past year, I did an inventory of like, okay, what do I need to do better going into this next year? And there was a lot of stuff and like some of, a lot of the stuff was very small. Like this next year, going to be, I want to dress, I want to be more professional than I am. So how am going to dress? Right? So.
They said, what do you want in your clothing order? And I was like, can I just get polos and slides? I was like, can I just get that? Like, that’s gonna seem silly, but.
from people in different avenues I’ve heard like you want to dress for the position that you want to be in. And one of the upper level goals that I’ve found is that I would like to be a director of a department. ⁓ I’m getting my MBA. So I’m learning the financial and project management side, which has been huge. And okay, well, that’s one of my goals now. So you want to dress for the position you want to
you want to be in, not for the position you’re in. So there’s that. ⁓
but then there’s also creating systems. So for something I’m doing with my track and field group this year, saying, okay, why sometimes was the training not to where I wanted it to be? Well, it’s not their fault because I’m the coach. So I can’t put it on, I can’t blame them for the times that it wasn’t what I wanted it to be. And so now it’s like, okay, I’ve been spending the past two months.
creating standards from what I’ve seen from other track and field athletes in different position or different event groups. What does it mean when you reach that standard? Can we get red, white and blue? Cause that’s our school colors. And then you’re a Patriot once you hit the top standard, you know, and like, how can I then drive those things? Where my sessions fun enough to actually keep them engaged, maybe not enough. So what can I add in there that’s going to drive intent and get what we need to get? But
actually be fun. Let them be the athletes that they are. ⁓ And that’s kind of been the same thing. I’ve taken that and boiled that down to every team that I’m working with this year. It’s like, how can I improve, not how can I improve their drive, but how can I provide a better environment for their drive to flourish? Because I know they don’t want to be worse. They want to be better. So how can I create an environment to
make that happen more so than I did this past year because it was good this past year but it’s not good enough right and it’s just it has to be better every every day it’s like this has to be better this has to be better so that’s that’s where I am right now
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it’s an awesome process. It’s always really fun to see younger strength coaches go through that process as well too. And I can tell you, you’re a great young strength coach and you’re going to be a really good older strength coach and hopefully director one day as well too, like you mentioned for your goals. And the only advice I can impart too is I like what you’re doing, right? You said it was good and then how do we make it great? Then how do we make it elite? You’ve got to build upon it each time.
It’s exciting to hear your thought process and see you go through this full process. I’m excited to stay in touch with you and understand exactly how things improve with you as well too. ⁓ Last question for you, what do you weigh now? You said you graduated high school at 140, what are you weighing now?
Wakeman Chemell:
I’m a 212. Yeah. Well, I got up to two. I got to 236 when I was at St. Francis. I was going hard. I got big, I couldn’t run. Like my shins would hurt so bad and I felt like I was sleeping horribly. So I was like, all right, we’re going to calm this down. now I’m at, yeah.
Connor Agnew:
212, well there you go, look at that. That’s almost 80 pounds there, brother. That’s a big jump.
Damn.
Yes.
Yeah, you
have bulked your way into sleep apnea at 236. I’ve done it before too myself. How tall are you?
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah.
I’m a six, I’m almost 6’1″, but I can’t claim it.
Connor Agnew:
Okay, there you go. Good. I respect the honesty because I’m 5’11 and three quarters and I never claimed six foot. can’t say it either. So that’s awesome. So you now 2’12, 6’1 almost. That’s a great spot to be way different from 1’40.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then I had a question for you or a few, I had a lot of questions for you. I’m sure I’ll get to most of them like through text or, or whatever. But one of them was when you were at, you were at Texas tech, right? And so, and, and as you’ve gone through your career, when you’re thinking about systems, like I was talking about for, for my teams, and this is a little more in the technical side or coaching side, I guess, what are some, what are some systems that you’ve made to drive intent?
Connor Agnew:
Yeah.
Wakeman Chemell:
Right? Cause like, let’s say if you don’t have forced place, which we don’t, ⁓ I mean, baseball does, but the rest of us don’t at the school. So we can’t like, it’s harder to create a dashboard and like get that buy in. Right. And so like, have different metrics that I’m going to look for. What are some things that you’ve done to drive intent, keep it fun, especially at that high of a level.
Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, think, you know, one of the main ones I think of is like the summer awards that we always do when they come in and train for the summer or maybe fall, you know, especially if at D2 where you said we don’t really train too much over the summer. Like I think back to, you know, different awards that we’ve done, we’ve called them dog points, you know, it depends on what team it is and kind of fits with each team, but it’s basically a similar system each time. Like right now it’s a stare taker of the week for our guys here. And so it goes based off of three different things.
The first one is body weight because we’re big on the body transformations. We recruit a lot of guys who either need to gain weight, lose weight, or possibly maintain. And so we get a certain point system based off of how they progress in their body transformations. So that’s one category. The second one is ⁓ actually, I literally take total tonnage for every single session that we have from each athlete. And then we’ll add it up across the week and then we’ll divide it by their body weight. So then we’ve got a ⁓ relative score for
total tonnage throughout the week as well too. So I would just say pound for pound, who’s the strongest on the team. And that’s the second kind of division. And the third is a team vote too, because I think it’s always interesting to see exactly what your peers think of you, especially if I’m a younger athlete. And so what we’ll do is each week we literally post it on the whiteboard and we show by rankings exactly where each person is when it comes to each ⁓ actual subset. And what’s been nice is it’s allowed me to talk to some of the
guys who I know are not bottom level guys, but may have gotten 14th out of 14 the previous week and just said, hey man, I know you’re not this guy, so let’s look at the things that we can improve, right? And so that system and the weight room award, some people think it’s kind of cheesy, but for me, that stuff makes a huge difference at the end of the day. It really gets people to buy in and they get invested in it. And we always have a little trophy with it. And this year we slapped on a $15 Chipotle gift card if you win as well too. maybe if you’re not,
you know, most internally motivated person, that external motivation pops through a little bit with a Chipotle gift card.
Wakeman Chemell:
Okay. And then when it comes to the rankings, what have you seen any issues come from that? And then how have you dealt with them? So like, man, I shouldn’t be bottom this week. Where are you like, or like conflict with that, or maybe someone sees their name at the bottom two weeks in a row and they’re kind of like, man, whatever, man, like I don’t care.
Connor Agnew:
The… How so? What do mean?
Yeah.
Yeah, your numbers are your numbers. And so if somebody is conflicted with it, then I just tell them, OK, well, let’s go through and let’s look at exactly how much. In this session, you lifted 12,450 pounds, whatever it may be. And then you look at body weight. OK, well, you lifted the same as somebody. You’re 210. You lifted the exact same amount away as somebody who’s 170. So how do you expect to win the strongest pound for pound? And then guys who aren’t necessarily bought in, I’ve been really fortunate, honestly.
⁓ especially with our program here at App State, we don’t recruit guys like that. We recruit guys who when they see their 14th automatically want to be shot up to first the next week too. So I don’t have a good answer for you on the second part because I guess my advice would be ⁓ understand that your recruiting coordinator is the best strength coach you can have on staff because they’re the ones who recruit all the guys who are talented and have the drive and motivation to get excited.
For the ones who aren’t happy with it, explained to them, hey man, your numbers are your numbers. That’s exactly why we have specific stats for each thing. Or maybe nobody voted for you because they weren’t seeing that you positively encouraged everybody else. So they didn’t feel like you were the ⁓ one who was working themselves the most. So how can you ultimately get to that next step? And so I think a lot of conversations and private meetings are a big way to get around that as well.
Wakeman Chemell:
Okay, yeah, so you have something objective like something you can’t run away from
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, there’s no just, I see a pick who I think is the best of the week. These are your straight numbers. This is exactly what it is. And if you don’t like it, then what do we got to do to change it?
Wakeman Chemell:
And so you worked with women’s basketball at Texas Tech. So do you still do the bodyweight stuff with the female? I know that’s a different level. So it’s a little different, but.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wakeman Chemell:
Do you see any problems with the body weight stuff when it comes to the women? And would you just do it anyways and then try and maybe influence them as you go along? How do you handle that?
Connor Agnew:
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s another fortunate piece, right? Men’s basketball, I think it’s a little bit different. So ⁓ yeah, I would say, you know, ultimately men’s basketball, it’s a little bit easier to talk about the weight gain transformations, ⁓ you know, and then women’s basketball, you know, you can do separate things like blind weigh-ins, you know, there’s also some women who are just real about that stuff and have no problem talking about it. And so it all depends on who your athlete base is as well too, but ⁓ we can…
off the podcast, I can give you some suggestions as well for that one as well too.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I mean, I think I don’t want to take up too much more time because I have a lot more I have a lot more questions. Many more. I have many more questions. There we go. Grammar. But, ⁓ yeah.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah. Well,
we’ll set up a meeting just you and me and then we’ll go through each of those as well too for sure. That’s no problem. But I appreciate you greatly for coming on the show, man. Thank you so much. If any of our listeners want to follow you on Instagram, what would be the best username for you?
Wakeman Chemell:
Awesome.
It’s very easy, it’s just wakemanship mouth. It’s just, yeah, that’s it.
Connor Agnew:
Boom.
W-A-K-E-M-A-N-C-H-E-M-E-L-L, correct? Awesome. All right, brother. Well, thank you so much for coming on, man. I appreciate you.
Wakeman Chemell:
Yes, yes. Yeah.
Awesome, thank you so much.