S03|E251 The Hardest Worker in the Room | Harlee Heath

Key Takeaways

Featured Quote

Harlee Heath (00:00)
I said, I’m going to train you like athletes. And if that means we’re going to Olympic lift, or if that means we’re going to squat heavy or deadlift heavy or bench heavy, like that’s what we’re going to do.

Samson (00:27)
What’s going on, Sampson Strength Coach, collective listeners. On today’s episode, have Harley Heath, graduate assistant for Western Kentucky University. Harley, thank you so much for coming on.

Harlee Heath (00:38)
Thank you so much for having me.

Samson (00:39)
I’m very excited to get to know you a little bit better and learn about your GA experience. ⁓ One of the funny things is I actually got like an anonymous recommendation for you to be on the podcast. So I don’t know who recommended you. ⁓ It could be a friend. It could be somebody completely random. We don’t know, but I hope they’re listening to this podcast.

Harlee Heath (00:59)
That’s so exciting actually.

Samson (01:03)
Well, ⁓ you know, obviously ⁓ the anonymous listener wants to know more about you and I would like to know more about you as well. Can you just give us your background in strength and conditioning? Kind of what got you interested in the field and then what brought you to Western Kentucky as a GA.

Harlee Heath (01:19)
Yeah. So funny story, actually, I did not know that strength conditioning was even a career path until my sophomore year of college. I went to the university of central Arkansas. That’s where I’m from. ⁓ I got, I was in an intro to exercise science class and every Friday we had like a career day, if you want to call it. And we had a female strength coach come in, basically tell about what strength conditioning coaches do.

And at the time I wanted to be an athletic trainer. I know I wanted to work in sports. I knew I wanted to do something along those lines, but I also knew I hated feet and didn’t want to tape ankles for the rest of my life. So I was like kind of looking for something else, but she came in, explained everything at the time. like loved working out, enjoyed working out and was like, that sounds like the perfect job for me. So I went up to her and I was like, I want to intern. Like, I don’t know what I got to do, but that’s what I wanted to do.

So I interviewed, ended up interning with our strength and conditioning staff for two years there. I worked with football, women’s tennis, track and field, baseball, just pretty much anything under the sun. As an intern, you work with just about everything and absolutely loved it. Fell in love. My second year there, I was able to travel with the football team, which was really cool to do as an intern. I know a lot of interns don’t really get that experience, but I was super blessed in that.

I also got to lead women’s tennis by myself as an intern, which was also really cool. And that experience definitely helped me grow a lot, mainly because the head coach did not like the weight room. And so I kind of had to work around that and they were all foreign. They were the sweetest girls ever, but they didn’t speak the best English. so having to kind of coach and train around that was a little, little bit difficult, but it was a really good learning experience for me.

And then I graduated with my bachelor’s in x-ray science and then was looking for a GA position, which I knew that I wanted my master’s degree to be something kinesiology, x-ray science related. I knew I wanted it to not necessarily be like a business degree. Like I didn’t want to go just get some random master’s degree for the GA position, but I knew that if I needed to, like I would. And

Actually, one of the strength coaches here at WKU on the football side of things. So at WKU football and Olympic staff are kind of separated. And on the football side heard that they were looking for a GA and he actually was a GI at UCA. kind of connected with the coaches and networking obviously is the name of the game in this career path. And so it kind of fell in my lap, like super last minute. They were like, Hey, we’re looking for somebody. And so I assist with men’s basketball, baseball.

And then cheer and dance are my two teams that I like have full control over, which has been a lot of fun. didn’t have any idea how to train a cheerleader or a dancer, but I figured it out pretty quick and they have been the best ever. So.

Samson (04:29)
That’s awesome. And I mean, such a cool experience for you to one, start off as an intern, but then lead women’s tennis and travel with the team. I want you to, okay, brag on yourself a little bit here. Don’t be humble. What do you feel like allowed you as an intern to see that transition and start to lead women’s tennis and travel with the team? Because that’s, like you said, it’s not a very common experience for a lot of interns. What do you feel like was ⁓ kind of the motivating factors or the tipping point for the strength and conditioning?

staff at UCA to trust you to do those things.

Harlee Heath (05:01)
think number one was just how passionate I was for strength and conditioning and being a strength coach and how much I wanted to learn. We’re constantly always asking questions and I do pride myself on my work ethic. I feel like I will and always will be the hardest worker in the room regardless of who all is in the room because that’s just one thing that I feel like growing up my dad was.

⁓ amazing hard worker and like that 100 % is why I’m such a hard worker. And I think that just being, you the first person there, last person to leave, you know, doing things without having to be asked or going and asking, Hey, like, what do need to do? Like, we’re all just kind of sitting around, there’s got to be something that needs to be done. And ⁓ so just like, knowing and then also, we didn’t have the best interns to kind of compare me to. So we had some interns that were a little, a little rough that

probably didn’t last as long as they should have. So I guess just like, again, loving the athletes, making sure that I was there, having a really good relationship with our strength coaches and with the sport coaches even as well. I think that’s something that’s super important, especially as an intern. You’re scared out of your mind normally whenever the head football coach walks in, but I think it’s good to shake his hand and you know.

say your name and ask him his name and stuff like that. just so that he knows that, okay, like this is someone who actually wants to be here and not just some intern that’s standing in the corner and, you know, just trying to get some hours or something along those lines.

Samson (06:41)
Yeah, no doubt. And I think there’s a lot of really good lessons for interns within there. Like you said, you know, finding the idle time or being the person who they can rely on or just showing your passion for the field. ⁓ I think you will be surprised as you go throughout your career ⁓ that it is not. I want you to listen to this episode in like 10 years. Okay. Because as my, as my experience going from an intern to GA to full-time strength coach, and then obviously now running a department and being the one who hires interns and hires GAs. ⁓

Harlee Heath (07:00)
Okay.

Samson (07:10)
I think you will be really surprised to find out that it is not that the interns around you weren’t the best. It’s just, you know, ultimately there’s a lot of people who ⁓ just struggle within this field a little bit because it takes a lot of dedication. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of, like you said, passion to be in the field. So I don’t think it’s a knock on them whatsoever. You know what? I’m not saying that’s how you said it, but ultimately I think you’ll see that there’s a reason why you stood out ⁓ because it’s tough to find good interns. It’s tough to find.

Harlee Heath (07:31)
Yeah, yeah.

Samson (07:38)
people who can really be there to help support the program. And so to me, you know, I wouldn’t be surprised from hearing what you said, why they would let you lead women’s tennis and why they would let you travel with the team. ⁓ And I like what you said too about not being nervous to say hello to the head coach and, know, being okay with putting yourself out there because that’s where I see a lot of interns first get stuck is they’ll think kind of like, well, I’m just an intern. Why would I need to be here? Right? You know, and obviously you’re not going to go up to the head strength coach and be like, okay, I’m ready, ready to lead today’s workout.

You know, I think your programming in this area isn’t so good. So let me help you there, right? Like there’s a certain level to it. But ultimately, you know, with not being scared and being confident in who you are, that can lead to a lot of success and it can be very beneficial. So I like those lessons from you. I think you’re already a teaching or a listener or something, which is great. You know, walk me through kind of your first couple of weeks with women’s tennis. I mean, obviously you just got into strength and conditioning. You’re still in your undergrad and then now you’re being tasked with leading a team who

Harlee Heath (08:10)
via

Samson (08:37)
The head coach doesn’t necessarily love the weight room and you know, there’s already a language barrier How was it, know kind of working within the first couple weeks and how did you see that relationship? Evolve as you continue to work with them

Harlee Heath (08:49)
Yeah, so originally, the strength coach or mean the sport coach was like, I only want them to do bodyweight and banded exercises. And I was like, okay, we could potentially work with that. ⁓ I did get to convince them to allow us to use dumbbells. So that was a big ⁓ win. We couldn’t get anybody under the bar, but I said, I’ll take some dumbbells. We’ll gobble it squat. We’ll do some…

some stuff like that. But at first it was really just one showing because so our GA at the time had women’s tennis and she also had like six other sports as some GA’s do. And so just her having not being able to put as much time and effort into them and like show up to meets and things like that nature of our matches. And ⁓ so really just the relationship building at first was super important just to kind of show like

Hey, like I’m here. You’re my only team. Like I can give 100 % effort into you guys. And so that was really cool. I think they really appreciated that. We had a lot of fun at first just because every single one of them hated the weight room. Every single one of them just dreaded coming. And so we, I just tried to make it as semi-enjoyable as possible. Tried to get to know them, get to know where they’re from. Obviously, like I said, they’re all foreign. And so just.

learning some of their cultures and things of that nature was super important to them, I think. And so then we again, started with the band and stuff, started with the bodyweight stuff. They weren’t doing anything weighted to begin with whenever I got them. And so kind of slowly easing them in was super important. And then just throughout, like I only had them for probably like eight months ish.

And tennis is kind of weird. They’re like in season, like all year round pretty much. Kind of like golf is just in season, out of season really frequently. And so I just kind of did the best I could with what I had. And we got some, we had the 6 a.m. slot. So that was never really the most enjoyable for them. I’m an early riser, so that didn’t really bother me any. But I said, hey, we got to be thankful for what we get. It’s either this or like eight o’clock at night. And I would much rather a 6 a.m. But.

It was a lot of fun and again, I definitely learned a lot just in teaching and like coaching cues and things of that nature. Can’t just be like, okay, we’ll do this because they just never really completely understood that. So showing and demonstrating was super important. And then again, just trying to figure out different ways to coach a movement or to get them to brace and just like little things like that. I’ve had to kind of figure out different ways to.

to explain it, which was a good thing for me to learn, especially as an intern.

Samson (11:40)
no doubt. mean, that’s basically the best way to learn is by limiting yourself. And now you have very few options of how you want to go about coaching this lift or learning how to essentially take a team through this. So I think that’s a fantastic experience. One of the things you mentioned there too is that ⁓ just being able to have somebody who’s fully dedicated to tennis really helped develop that relationship. ⁓ if I can get on my soapbox just briefly, that’s why I believe that staffing is so important.

Right, because, ⁓ you know, ultimately we kind of sometimes limit how many straight conditioning coaches, ⁓ you know, ⁓ specific university or department has because of money, right? And they’re like, well, you know, this kind of the history of our field is we all have multiple teams. I’m working with three teams right now, ⁓ you know, and it’s funny because obviously I was hired for men’s basketball. So I spend a lot of time with men’s basketball and then I volleyball and women’s golf who are fantastic to train as well. But

the men’s basketball staff is always like, well, you haven’t done anything today. You just sit in the weight room all day and I’m like, you have no clue what I do in a day, right? I train women’s golf, I train volleyball, I have meeting space around those things. ⁓ And so ultimately I noticed that my relationship with men’s basketball is gonna be one of the best because I spend so much time around them. And so for women’s tennis at your school who maybe didn’t love the weight room so much and like you said, has to come in at 6 a.m.

Harlee Heath (12:41)
Yeah, exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Samson (13:00)
There’s a lot of things working against it. Ultimately saw more success when they had somebody who was fully dedicated to the sport. So I don’t mean to hop on your conversation and get on my soapbox a little bit with it, but you know, it’s been frustrating for me to see the trend, especially with the NIL era and people adding in money in the conversation to see that they’re kind of shrinking, straightened the condition departments or limiting how many string coaches there can be. Because I think that’s such a fantastic story that shows.

You know, even you, the first time coaching the team, can have great success ⁓ because of how much time and how much dedication you show to the team. So ⁓ I think it’s a very exciting and uplifting story that I like hearing about. So thank you. ⁓ You’re going into your second year as a GA at Western Kentucky, correct? Or is this year, is it a one-year program?

Harlee Heath (13:45)
It’s a two-year program and I graduate in like five fish weeks. So I’m just now finishing up my second year.

Samson (13:50)
That’s crazy.

You must be excited to be done with school. I couldn’t wait. I remember I handed in a project. I needed an 80 on it and I knew how she kind of graded things. And so I completed 80 % of the project and I just left like the last 20 % blank because I knew she’d give me an 80 on it and I graduate. So trust me, I think a lot of people listening have been there before and understand how that feels.

Harlee Heath (13:54)
⁓ you have no idea. I am so ready to be done.

Samson (14:17)
How has your experience been at Western Kentucky, especially going from your first year to your second year as you’ve been able to lead teams more and as you’ve had dance and cheer for kind of consecutive years? How’s your experience been growing as a coach from the Western Kentucky perspective?

Harlee Heath (14:33)
Yeah, so Western Kentucky has been probably the best aspect I could or the best place I could have ever gone to when it comes to coaching and learning how to coach and ⁓ just becoming a better coach in general. My boss, call him D-Hall, D-Hall has been absolutely amazing and has definitely put me in very uncomfortable positions as a coach and to like help me learn and grow. And that has been

so good and just again like when I’m in the in the moment I’m like my goodness what am I doing like I just am freaking out but afterwards I’m like okay I grew and I learned so much in that aspect or in that one week or whatever and but it’s been great he has definitely pushed me outside my comfort zone definitely pushed me to think different ways and coach different ways and a good way my first week he

It’s very good about not micromanaging, which was like super nice. He kind of was like, Harley, these are your teams, cheer and dance. This is like, I’m going to kind of help you out the first couple of weeks, but then like, like you’re going to coach. Like I don’t want them to see me as their coach. Like I want them to see you as a coach. You’re going to make mistakes. I’m going to let you make mistakes and that’s going to be a good thing. And obviously no safety hazards or anything like that. But ⁓ yeah, so he, I mean, week one, I was

on the floor coaching by myself, which was so scary because I had 70 cheerleaders, because we have a coed team and we have an all-girl team. And then I had around 30 dance girls. And so going from my eight tennis girls to 120 cheer and dance girls and guys, that was definitely a big jump to say. But it was definitely…

So worth it even from like year one to year two. I’m a completely different coach so much more confident just getting those coaching reps and As much as how scary it was week one I mean they I go back and I’m like, guys my first week I was so scared like I was just losing my mind and they were like what we had no idea I was like, well, I guess I’m pretty good at hiding it because I was so scared But it was funny like our first

literally my first time with cheer. So I’m six foot tall. Okay. So sometimes I forget that human beings come in like a lot smaller, you know, heights, ⁓ as in like four, seven, which is like my shortest dance or my shortest cheer girl. And so I had them, I was like, okay, we’re to do some hip mobility over some hurdles. This is going to be great. And so I set up the hurdles and everything and I have the guys go first, no problems at all. And then I have the girls go.

and they like physically cannot get over the hurdle. Like they’re just, their legs were just too short. And I was like, well, that mistake number one, cheerleaders cannot go over hurdles. They are too short. So had to find something different. It was a funny time at the, they’re like, Harley, I like physically can’t get over. And I was like, yeah, I can see that my bad. So it was, it was funny. Day one, I was like, okay, well now I’m going to have to change other things about my workout now. But now I like,

I learned that, you know, athletes come in all shapes and sizes. It’s kind of funny because I work with our shortest athletes and our tallest athletes. We’ve got a basketball guy that’s seven foot tall and then got a cheer girl that’s four, seven. And so it’s definitely being able to kind of work around those different heights and different levers and based off of femur length and all that jazz that I didn’t know coming into day one. But I’ve learned over the course of

two years, but again, it’s been so good. I am with men’s basketball. I have participated in game day stuff. I didn’t travel with them just because I had to cover some other teams while our head coach was gone, but just trying to learn something new every day has been the goal. And then right now we’re kind of on the chill. I worked a lot of hours over the past two years. And so now I just have cheer and dance and then

We’ve got a couple of basketball guys returning and so it’s been really good. I again feel like I’ve learned so much from these past two years of learning from DeHal, learning from Morgan, who’s one of our assistant strength coaches, and then Parker’s are one of our newer coaches. And just seeing how everybody coaches differently and kind of taking away little things from each of them has been really good, especially.

Parker coaches very differently than I coach and Morgan and DeHal coach. And so that’s been really cool to kind of see how he does things. And then again, Morgan coaches differently than DeHal coaches. And we all kind of coach a little bit different, which is nice to kind of take things that we see that are beneficial for the athletes or that the athletes like or enjoy or something along those lines and kind of be able to plug it into what I’m kind of working with.

Samson (19:38)
No, it sounds like it’s such a cool experience and I’m glad that you’re really enjoying it. ⁓ Especially with having mentors who are okay with letting you fail. I think that’s such an important piece. ⁓ Like you said, sometimes the micromanagement, can help you with things that you may not see coming. That could have been a time where, he ⁓ was at D-Hall, you said, if D-Hall was like, hey, the cheerleaders are be too short, they’re not gonna be able to get over the hurdles.

Harlee Heath (20:01)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Samson (20:05)
you could learn that lesson, right? And you could understand it, but it’s not gonna be ingrained in you the same as if you had made that mistake, right? And so those things stick with you. And again, like you said, it’s just something funny that happened. It’s not like a very serious ⁓ error. It’s just a funny little deal that I’m sure you laugh about with the cheerleaders till this day, right? But ultimately making those mistakes is what’s so beneficial in my opinion, because it allows you to grow and you really remember those. Like when you’re the one who makes the mistake, you never forget it, right? Versus. ⁓

Harlee Heath (20:12)
Yeah.

No.

Yes.

Yeah, exactly.

Samson (20:35)
what I’ve

done too much sometimes with people I’ve tried to mentor is try to point out stuff before it can even happen. And it’s like, no, you know, let those people make the mistakes because again, you never forget it. And it’s funny because the GA time I feel like is one of the most fun times because you’re going to make a lot of mistakes and there’s going to be things that you just never ever thought of that could possibly go wrong or didn’t even think could possibly enter the realm of like, here’s a problem I have to deal with today. And they’re always going to pop up. Like it’s, ridiculous sometimes what’s the, what are some of the lessons you have to learn, but

Harlee Heath (20:59)
Yes.

Samson (21:04)
Again, they always just make you a better coach. And I love that you’re taking things from your other coaching staff as well too. It’s such a valuable experience and you’ll see as you continue on, it’s gonna be really fun to kind of meet different coaches and see what their styles are and how they operate. ⁓ Because I remember I started off in football and I always kind of thought, okay, I have to coach like football. I have to be super loud, rowdy, and I have to do all these things. ⁓ And then that’s just not my personality. That’s not who I am. And so…

Harlee Heath (21:27)
Yes.

Samson (21:32)
being around other coaches and seeing other coaches be successful with kind of what my more coaching style looks like now has been, it was really beneficial for me, especially as an intern and a GA. So I’m excited to hear that it’s been a good experience and I wish you luck in the hiring process. We mentioned ⁓ before the show that, you know, right now is kind of the GA hiring time. Do you have any advice for any interns ⁓ or undergraduate students who are looking to get a GA position, anything that.

Harlee Heath (21:49)
Thank you.

Samson (22:00)
⁓ you did or any advice that you would like to impart to them as they get ready for their GAs.

Harlee Heath (22:06)
⁓ Definitely just be reaching out, trying to network as much as you can. ⁓ Networking is 100 % the name of the game in this business. And so just getting your name out there, getting your face out there. Even I, like you said, I’m currently looking for a full-time position. ⁓ It’s not the easiest thing in the world at the current moment, but it’s what I’m doing. so ⁓ even like last week, I…

Texted the head strength coach at Middle Tennessee for men’s basketball. I had talked to him at a game one time just to network, like I said, just to introduce myself, tell him I’m a GA, ask him questions. Here at WKU, we don’t use a lot of technology, so we don’t have any VBT stuff, don’t have any force plates, anything like that. And so I really wanted to kind of expand my knowledge on that.

And so I reached out to him and was like, I knew that he had used that they use connects on, they use VBTs, stuff like that. And so I reached out to him over spring break and I was like, Hey, I’m doesn’t like, don’t have anything going on. Can I come down for a couple hours and just learn from whatever you’ve got to teach me? And he was super welcoming and all of his, like the staff that he works with was super welcoming. And I just went out down, hang hung out for about three hours or so.

Checked out their new way room, which is so nice. ⁓ Checked out all their technology. He was showing me what he used and how he used it and how his basketball players ⁓ benefit from it and things of that nature. And so just, I mean, the three hours that it took out of my Friday was definitely good for networking. And I mean, he said that if he hears of a job, you’ll call me. And so just the little things like that.

Just getting your name out there, going and visiting places is super, super important as an intern, a GA, even as a full-time coach, I would imagine.

Samson (24:00)
Yeah, I can speak from experience on the other side of that too. There’s a lot of times where you’ll connect with people and I’ll give them my number or something. I’ll say, reach out anytime you have any questions or would love to hear from you. ⁓ And I genuinely mean it. And I think that’s very similar with a lot of other people in training conditioning is it’s not a, I’m giving you my number because I want to look good. It doesn’t really benefit us that much in the moment. It’s more of people have done that for us in the past and we want to be able to share those things and share the knowledge that we’ve gained because

Harlee Heath (24:21)
Yeah.

Samson (24:29)
I haven’t had a single original thought in strength and conditioning. Everything I do is stolen from somebody else or shown to me by somebody else. And so ultimately I feel like it’s kind of a lot of our jobs to pass that information down. And I think I commend you on following up on that, right? And meeting with him and actually, okay, here’s how I’m gonna learn and get better from this. Because I also remember too, if I met people and I never hear from them again, I kind of remember that, right? It’s not like a…

Harlee Heath (24:55)
Yeah.

Samson (24:55)
super negative thing, but it is a, well, I’ve never really heard from you. ⁓ You know, and then you kind of reached back out to me around the time it is to apply for jobs. And this is the first time I hear from you, right? Versus ⁓ your situation where you’re really trying to learn and trying to get better as a coach, where you can develop a much stronger relationship. So I commend you on following up on that, cause that stuff really matters. And anybody listening, if you’re a full-time employer, Harley Heath is looking for a full-time job. So we’ll plug that personally. Yeah.

Harlee Heath (25:06)
Yeah.

Yes I am. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Samson (25:25)
Well, one of the other things we kind of touched on briefly pre-show was you can obviously speak to your experience as a female within the field of strength and conditioning, which is very clearly a male dominated field. ⁓ And I clearly cannot speak to that side. So can you just kind of tell me a little bit about your experience as a female within strength and conditioning, how that experience has been? Do you feel like it’s different from a male experience? I would love to hear all of it.

Harlee Heath (25:50)
Yeah. So, ⁓ like I said before, my first initial, like introduction to strength and conditioning was from a female strength coach, which I think is really cool. ⁓ most, like you said, it’s very male dominated career path. ⁓ and so that was really cool to just see that my first initial reaction was to be with a female strength coach. ⁓ I ended up, she ended up getting a new job somewhere else. So never actually got to coach alongside her, which was a little unfortunate, but

⁓ She got a much better job and was able to go power five with it. But yeah, so I think being a female in this career path, there’s definitely ups and downs to it. think ⁓ it takes a certain type of person, not that you can’t, not that nobody could necessarily go out and do it. ⁓ But I do think that

It is just very important to one, stick close with the other female strength coaches, especially like through social media. I follow probably, I don’t even know, hundreds of strength coaches on social media. And the majority of them are females. not like a solid half of them are females. And I think females in the career path or in the career like in strength and conditioning.

are super good about trying to connect with other females and trying to help other females out in certain ways. ⁓ There is a GA at Jack State, her name’s Lark, and I knew that she was a GA there. I literally just DM’d her on Instagram one day and was like, hey, you guys are gonna be at WKU on Saturday, like let’s link up and just talk for like 10 minutes. And so just doing little things like that has been really helpful. She literally texted me the other day about a…

like a job and was like, would you be interested in this? Like, I want to see you succeed. And I know you want to see me succeed. ⁓ I do think it is really good also for our female athletes to have like a female strength coach. I know for sure ⁓ my dance girls have had some trouble in the past. So every GA before me has been a man, which again, no hate to that, like equal, you know, all the things.

⁓ but they, the strength coaches before haven’t really pushed them to kind of be their best and didn’t really know how to, I guess, coach a bunch of dance girls, which again, I didn’t know how to coach a bunch of dance girls either, but week one, you could kind of tell that they were like, I don’t really like the weight room. don’t know. Like apparently before they just did a bunch of circuit stuff and didn’t really like.

lift heavy weights and they kind of felt like it was just kind of a waste of time. so week one, I was like, yeah, throw that out the door. Like we’re not doing that. I said, I’m going to train you like athletes. And if that means we’re going to Olympic lift, or if that means we’re going to squat heavy or deadlift heavy or bench heavy, like that’s what we’re going to do. And as soon as I said, I’m going to treat you like real athletes, because a lot of people don’t see cheer and dance as real athletes. I mean, they’re technically not NCAA athletes.

And they just see them on their like side, the sidelines of a football game or whatever. But that’s not really what they’re there for. They’re there for their nationals competition. Like that’s what they train for. And so as soon as I said, Hey, I’m going to treat you like real athletes. Like the buy-in was nearly immediate. Like they were like, yes, like this is what we want. We want somebody to push us. want somebody that understands us and that wants best for us. And so not saying that a man.

couldn’t do that, but just being able to connect as a female and with that dance team, was super important for them. And I have nearly a hundred percent buy-in with my dance girls and they love to show up. They originally started out two days a week and then they loved it so much they asked for a third day. So we work out three days a week and they just, I don’t have to force it. don’t have to like drag them in. Like I don’t have to.

force them to do anything that they want to do it. come in with a good attitude every single day and they’re ready to work. And so I think just being a female for them has been really, really good. ⁓ Also, we all know that strength coaches wear lots of different hats. And so in the cheer and dance world, there are a lot of eating disorders and things of that nature. And I think…

I’ve had several girls come and talk to me about it and like, Harley, this is what’s going on. This is like what I need help with. Like, what can I do? I need your help. And so I think just having that female-female kind of relationship helps a lot with that aspect of things as well. And I feel like they can probably confide in me a little bit better than maybe they could in a male in that position. ⁓ But I do think that being a female in this

career path in general, it definitely has its ups and downs. if you find, sport coaches, like male sport coaches, female sport coaches, male or female head coaches who believe in you, then it doesn’t really matter. Your athletes will respect you eventually. It might take a little bit longer for the male athletes to respect you, but I do think that eventually it all comes around and it might just take a little bit longer than…

the females,

Samson (31:28)
Yeah, I think you bring up a really great point about the athlete and coach relationship. You know, what I find interesting is, as you’re mentioning this, I’m thinking through, well, how many female athletes do I work with? Right. And that’s going to be 22 right now. And how many male athletes I work with is going to be 15. And due to Title IX, and if you’re on the Olympic side, you’re going to have more female athletes than there are actually going to be male athletes within the programs that you’re working for. And so ultimately,

there does need to be a ⁓ strong amount of female coaches within the field because I agree with you, there’s some really strong advantages to having a female to female ⁓ coach and athlete relationship. Because again, like you said, there’s just certain things that I know volleyball is not gonna come up to me and talk about. And they think certain things or concerns that they might have. That’s where my wife is awesome, right? Because she’s the dietician for the school. And so, if they struggle with anything, I can always refer them to her.

But you I do think there’s another level of depth within that relationship and I think you bring up a really great point too of I feel like sometimes male coaches can be a little afraid to coach women hard, right? They feel like okay, this is a female athlete This is somebody who I might not be able to push as much as I could a male ⁓ When that’s just completely incorrect and as you’ve proven with what you’ve said is that you know

Harlee Heath (32:36)
Yeah.

Samson (32:48)
every athlete’s an athlete and they want to train hard and they want to be coached and they want to be corrected. They want to improve so that they can ultimately see success in their sport or whatever their endeavor is. So I think you bring up really great points with that. You know, I’m a little bit curious, what’s, what do you say? One of the things you mentioned was, you know, finding other female strength coaches and staying close to them. What’s the importance of that to you? Why is that something that you really value within the field?

Harlee Heath (33:13)
Yeah, I think it’s super important just because ⁓ sometimes like you can kind of feel not alienated, but kind of like just set apart ⁓ when you’re with just an entire male staff. So whenever I came to WKU, Morgan, our assistant strength coach, basically went on maternity leave as soon as I got there. And so I had one full semester without her there. And that was really

a tough time for me, one, just like being in a new place, like a new town that I knew absolutely nobody. And then being with two male strength coaches who at the time, who had both been there for 30 years. so, which was, it’s kind of crazy in the strength conditioning world that both have been there since they literally started. And so I really struggled with just trying to one, just

be a strength coach in general. Like I had all these questions to ask and spending so much time. I mean, as a GA, I was working 70, 80 hours a week and that was like normal. And which I signed up for that and that’s totally, put, you you put your time in. ⁓ But I do think that just having those female strength coaches that are kind of going through the same thing ⁓ to be able to kind of connect and talk through those things is super important. And then as soon as Morgan got back, it was

so nice and very refreshing to have like another female in the building ⁓ with all the males like to sauce your own going on. It was nice to have a little bit of estrogen to join me. But just being able to connect on those things and talk about different things that we like struggle with or that most people can’t see or I mean just having another female friend in general who share the same interests as you and have the same passions as you is just super important.

And so I try and again, like reach out to as many female coaches as I can just to, you know, become friends, even if it’s just we’ve never met in person. ⁓ I had a coach reach out to me the other day and was like, Hey, let’s just FaceTime for like 30 minutes and just get to know each other a little bit. And so now I have that connection as well. And like just getting to know as many females as you can. And there are more like, it’s still a very, very male dominated career.

But I think the more within the next several years, it will be a lot closer to half and half, which is super exciting and I think is super important. And any female intern or any female that is interested in the strength and conditioning world, I absolutely love to talk to. ⁓ I love to talk the good, the bad, the ugly. I’m a very blunt person. And so I’m going to tell you all the amazing things it is about being a strength coach. And then I’m going to tell you all the things that low-key kind of suck.

And so I think it’s super important to have those people in your life and just having those female connections is just super important to me.

Samson (36:17)
Well, thank you for the in-depth explanation because I mean, it completely makes sense, right? Obviously, I’ve had a different experience, so I can’t really speak to what you just mentioned, but it definitely makes sense. And I look at events at the CSCCA like the women’s coaches brunch, right? Where it’s a space where, it’s not, mean, because you look at the, what, the convention floor and it’s going to be a lot of dudes, right? Like you said, a lot of the testosterone energy. So I can only imagine having a space where you can connect and.

develop even further relationships with other female strength coaches is really valuable. So I also love that what you’re practicing, what you preach, right? And you say, you know, anybody please reach out to me. Cause again, it’s a valuable resource and you’ve learned some things and you’re ready to pass them down too, which I’m very excited about. You know, I don’t mean this in a leading question whatsoever. I just, I’m just curious, like, do you think ⁓ it would have been any different if you had a male strength coach come into your class versus a female strength coach? Would you?

have felt a little bit different about approaching them or about the career. ⁓ It’s again, I don’t want this to be a leading question. So don’t, you know, just answer the way you think I want to answer. I’m just curious.

Harlee Heath (37:17)
No, yeah.

Yeah, I don’t think I probably would have reacted any other way. Just the job description itself, whether it came from a man or a woman, sounded like right up my alley, which it is. I will say it a million times. I have the best job in the world. And I do think it is really cool that it was a female, but I think that if it was a man, it would have been the same. Our head strength coach, Coach Fadio, he was absolutely amazing while I was an intern in the undergrad.

Again, gave me so many opportunities to learn as a coach and lead different things. Again, women’s tennis, I led several different spots in football and things of that nature, but I think he again is super good. I think it’s just really matters if the head strength coach, if it is a male, if he believes that women should be there, then you’ll have a good experience. If you are with somebody with a male head strength coach that doesn’t believe that women can do it.

then you’re going to struggle and you’re going to have problems and it’s probably going to turn you away from the career. But I think every man that I’ve worked under or has mentored me or I’ve worked with has fully believed that women can do the same thing, just as good as a man can in this career. And so I think that’s the number one importance is just being around the men who want the women to be there and like want them to flourish and be good coaches.

know that they can be good coaches.

Samson (38:49)
Yeah, which I would certainly hope that’s everybody at this point, right? But unfortunately, that’s not the case. Yeah, that’s more of a hope. So I hope that continues to grow. As you mentioned, with more female strength coaches coming into the field and making it very clear that they’re the exact same as male strength coaches and they can do the exact same job and probably even better in certain areas. I would hope that that ⁓ disbelief continues to, ⁓ I mean, fade away. I mean, hopefully to the point where it’s zero. I don’t know if that’s realistic, but, ⁓ you know, we can certainly hope.

Harlee Heath (38:52)
You would hope.

Samson (39:18)
And you know, I appreciate you answering the question, honestly. I think, like you said, the thing you’re most excited about is you didn’t have to deal with feet and taping ankles anymore. So. Well, another thing that I’ve seen without your career is you like to post on social media and share information kind of through Reels. After somebody sent me your name, I obviously looked you up and that’s how I first contacted you. And I was able to see some of your social media posts. What is the importance to you about?

Harlee Heath (39:28)
Yes. Yes.

Samson (39:45)
posting different informative reels on Strength and Conditioning Instagram, putting out this information for everybody to see what’s the importance behind it for you.

Harlee Heath (39:57)
For me, it’s really just to show my athletes that I work out to and that whenever they see me post things on Instagram, whenever they see me do things that one, that they thought they could never do. Like the other day, I posted myself doing some pushups, okay? And so I had a cheer girl literally the next day come up to me and she was like, Harley, look, I just got my pushup the other day for the first time.

and like could do a pushup, like an unassisted pushup for the first time. And she was so excited. And that one was just so cool to me to see that she was so excited that she could do a pushup. And I was so excited that she could do a pushup and all that hard work that we had done on assisted pushups and all these things like paid off. And so I think just posting things, just informational things, I don’t post a lot about necessarily the athletes that I work with. I have debated creating like a

coaching, social media account, but I’ve yet to decide. I think I’m going to, but anyways, right now I just stick with my personal one. But just giving people ideas. I have a lot of athletes that no longer are athletes that have graduated, reach out to me all the time, be like, Harley, I’m thinking my hip mobility is bad. What are some hip mobility things that you could send me? And so instead of sending it just to them,

I will like to create a video or something like a reel, like you said. ⁓ So then I can kind of show it with everybody. Like everybody’s needs some fresh ideas every once in a while. And so I think it’s important that one, that people that aren’t athletes see that, because I think exercise is super important for athletes and non-athletes. I’m very passionate about that, that everybody should be lifting some weight if you want to play with your grandkids someday, or if you want to live a semi-healthy life at the end. ⁓

And so I think just posting things that might be semi-motivational or as long as it motivates one person, then like I’m happy. And if as long as it maybe someone can take something from it, then like I’m good. I’m happy about it. And so I think it’s just important to kind of one again, show that I’m doing the same thing that my athletes are doing. Like I tell them all the time, I’ve done every workout that I’ve asked you to do. So if I can do it, you can do it.

And then anything that like is motivational to people who necessarily aren’t in the athletic realm or just like my best friend. I send her things all the time. I’m like, hey, you should try this out or hey, or she’ll ask me like, hey, what should I do? I need some plyometric ideas. Like what do you, what should I do? And so I’ll make a plyometric video or something along those lines, which I need to do in my bed, Emily. I need to make her a plyometric video. But so I think it’s just really cool to be able to kind of show

Again, my passion too, like I love my job so much and I love working out and I love my athletes. And so being able to show that to the world and to the people who follow me in the world, ⁓ that they can do it just as much as I can do it or that they can accomplish any of those goals as well.

Samson (43:07)
I love that. And I love your different perspectives and why it’s important. You know, I will say I highly encourage you to start your coaching account. That’s the topic we’ve discussed many, many times on this show. And from my personal experience, it’s opened up a lot of doors that I didn’t think would be open for me. And actually one of them was hosting this podcast. I remember I interviewed for this podcast and put my application in. They said one of the main reasons they hired me is because I posted on social media a lot and there’s a lot of me talking directly to the camera. So they knew I could at least talk to a camera.

Harlee Heath (43:14)
I knew I needed to.

Samson (43:36)
They didn’t know it’d take a year for me to figure out how to talk to another human being on camera, but we eventually got there. So I highly encourage you to do that. ⁓ But you know, I really like what you say about ⁓ ultimately showing your athletes that you train to. I think that’s really valuable. You know, it’s funny to me when we’ll do assault bike workouts, that’s kind of the number one thing that they’ll kind of, you know, buck back on. They’re like, well, I don’t really like doing this or anything. And we do a three minute test really frequently with volleyball and…

Harlee Heath (43:58)
Yes.

Samson (44:04)
kind of their main thing and they always come back and they’re like, well, what is your calories on three minutes? And I’m like, actually, I know exactly what my calories are, because I’ve done this test at least 15 times, right? And so having actual visual evidence is really cool. And I think you already saw the payoff with the cheerleader coming in and saying, look, I can do my pushups too. I think that’s really fun. And that’s what makes it exciting for the career. So I love that you’re invested in it. And again, I highly encourage you to post on the actual strain and conditioning.

Harlee Heath (44:13)
Yeah.

Samson (44:32)
know, coach account, because again, it opens up a lot of opportunities and some sponsorship stuff, which is cool too.

Harlee Heath (44:38)
Yes, that would be really cool actually. Yes, I know I need to, this is ⁓ kind of funny, but whenever I was originally starting to look for master’s programs for, to get my like GA position, to get my master’s degree, I actually looked at App State and you were one of the first influencer strength coaches I followed on Instagram, which is kind of funny. A little full circle moment for me right now ⁓ because you did post so much and I was like, okay, this is really cool. Like I need to.

Samson (44:59)
Ha

Harlee Heath (45:07)
keep up with what is going on in everybody else’s strength and conditioning world. And so that is kind of cool that I am on this podcast here with you right now. And three years ago, I followed you on Instagram to look at your postings on your strength and conditioning wise, which is kind of cool.

Samson (45:23)
That’s really cool. I really like hearing that, seriously, and I appreciate you telling me that. Hopefully, that can be the same conversation you have with somebody ⁓ one day as well, is that it’s fun when people reach out and say, I follow you and like your content. It’s fun to do. I’m sorry I haven’t posted as much over the past couple of years, but hopefully you got some value out of what I posted in that timeframe where you followed me. Seriously, Harley, thank you so much for coming on. It’s been really fun to get to know you, and it’s been very exciting to hear about your journey.

Harlee Heath (45:39)
go to go.

Yes.

Samson (45:53)
⁓ Okay, do you want to shout out your Instagram now? I know you haven’t started your coaching Instagram yet, but where other people can follow you or reach out to you if they kind of want to follow up for some more details.

Harlee Heath (46:03)
Yeah, so my Instagram right now, again, I’ll probably be making a coaching one eventually, but my Instagram right now is just harley.heath. Harley with two E’s, not an EY. My parents wanted to make it difficult on me. And then Heath, just like the candy bar. But yeah, so I’m private right now, but I accept anything pretty much if you’re not like weird or anything like that. But yeah, please reach out if you have any questions, especially if you’re a female looking into.

Being a strength coach like I again will tell you the good the bad the ugly and everything in between and I think again it is the best job in the world and would recommend it to literally anybody but

Samson (46:43)
That’s awesome. Well, I, again, I appreciate you extending that invite as well too, cause it means a lot to our listeners. I know that for a fact and maybe you’re LinkedIn. We can shout out your LinkedIn as well too. I don’t know if you know it off the top of your head, but that way, no, okay. Well, we’ll move straight on. But again, yeah, there we go. That’ll work out well. Yeah. Well, again, if anybody’s looking to hire, we’ve got Harley Heath with, you know, multiple years of strength and conditioning experience is pretty exciting. So Harley, again, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.

Harlee Heath (46:56)
Ooh, it’s probably just typing my name. Yeah, it’s probably just Harley-Eith.

Yes, please.

Yes.

Thank you so much for having me.

Samson (47:13)
Absolutely.