Скачать или смотреть EP 02: The Grind You Can't Cheat w/ Yusef Fitzgerald

On this episode of Hardwood Voices, we're joined by Yusef Fitzgerald, Athletic Director and Head Coach at The Piney Woods School.

Coach Fitzgerald shares his journey from growing up in Jackson, Mississippi being raised by a single mother and learning what it meant to be a man at Piney Woods. We talk through his early coaching stops, his move to Chicago, coaching Anthony Davis and Kendrick Nunn on the EYBL circuit, head coaching varsity at IMG Academy, and serving as Director of Basketball Operations at Iona during an NCAA Tournament run.

He reflects on becoming head coach at Hinds Community College, returning to Piney Woods as an AD and head coach, adjusting to today's athletes, and what it means to leave every place better than you found it.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:13 Growing up in Jackson, MS
02:35 Motivation
03:50 Learning to be a man
05:12 Coaching Journey
06:06 Velma Jackson
06:53 Piney Woods
07:08 Moves to Chicago
10:00 Meeting Loren Jackson
13:38 Meanstreets EYBL
14:11 IMG Academy
15:02 Iona College
19:30 Hinds CC
26:30 Back to Piney Woods
28:44 Adjusting to the athletes
30:32 Coaching Anthony Davis and Kendrick Nunn
33:04 Playing Anthony Davis 1v1
37:45 High School Players Going D1
44:00 Honesty
48:52 How do you want to be remembered
51:16 Lifelong Learner