Advice for Athletes Who Want to Play Division 1 Sports

Advice for Athletes Who Want to Play Division 1 Sports

welcome to the Athlete Brand Advisor podcast featuring advice and interviews about athlete branding Learn how marketing public relations and broadcasting can grow your brand We also have special episodes to talk about recent news events and anything in the world of sports The podcast is sponsored by Pliable a versatile marketing PR and broadcasting company that identifies opportunities and creates tailored content for its clients Now it’s time to roll Here’s your host Greg Glenn All right and thank you very much and welcome inside the Athlete Brand Advisor podcast Greg Glenn with you here today for our episode where we have a tremendous guest I’m honored to be joined by our guest today who has made time especially even on a game day and very appreciative of that and that is the head coach of the Quinnipak University men’s ice hockey team Ran Peknull the all-time winningest coach at Quinnipak and ranks third among all division one coaches all time in wins with more than 550 Ran welcome to the podcast
Thanks for having me on Craig
Absolutely And I wanted to talk too because obviously uh listeners may know that my broadcasting career started here at Quinnipak Uh interesting story where Duncan Fletcher was kind of doing the color at the time and he was uh you know talking up there and he realized that uh I actually was writing for US College Hockey magazine at the time and he said you’re probably in a much better place to be doing this than I am and uh he invited me up and I got the chance to work with Bill Schweitzer and I got the chance of a lifetime because he was such a great mentor to me and uh obviously you also kind of brought me under your wing as as the coach uh and I felt part of the team and I’ve always remembered that and I wanted to thank you for that
Oh well you’re welcome I do remember uh one of your first interviews too I always at Northford it was uh you’ve come a long way since those days but no that was fun It was great Uh it was great that you got that experience at Quinnipiac and and and this obviously has has uh grown into into your really your career you know or branch out into certain different areas of career
Yep And it’s really given me a launch pad and I appreciate it uh very much so So uh I wanted to talk about how my broadcasting career obviously started here at Quinnipak but today we want to talk with you and I want to understand how your career evolved dating back to even your time as a player at Lawrence Academy and whether or not you had you know playing professionally on your radar or coaching and talk to me about your kind of experience growing up
Uh well when I when I got out of college I went to Connecticut College which is you know division 3 D3 was a little different back then It was it was it was better basically um in that you didn’t have as many division one teams Um you probably had almost I don’t know if it was a third but it was significantly less division one teams So there was a lot of good players that ended up in the division three route There’s no real division 2 hockey And I finished up and uh I looked into a little bit about going over um to maybe play in Europe somewhere but I wasn’t I wasn’t good enough to make any money So I So anyway so I moved on but I I going get into coaching like I never really thought about um you know being a coach Um and I just kind of fell into it Uh my my objective was always to go to law school and be a lawyer And then um you know I was kind of you know I was I would say floundering a little bit once I got out of college I didn’t know what I you know you’re young and I didn’t know exactly what I want to do but that was kind of what my plan was Eventually I’ll go to law school I didn’t want to go right away
Then out of the blue I got a call from from my coach at Connecticut College Doug Roberts you know who had played in the NHL and he was he was great to me And he’s like “Hey my assistant just randomly left Uh do you want to come in um you know and and be my assistant it’s it’s a two-year window Uh doesn’t pay a lot There’s not a lot of options but you get a free masters.” And I was kind I didn’t really I don’t think I thought it enough about it but I was like “Sure.” And honestly even when I went it was more I still didn’t go to do it because I thought I was going to be a hockey coach I just thought “Hey something to do.” And I really like Doug uh our coach as I call him
and um you know I could get a masters out of it and while I’m trying to sort my life out just I might as well get my masters under my belt and
um and then uh you know was like three days into coaching and I’m like oh my god I loved it and uh you know that’s you know the rest is kind of history how my path kind of went I was that was pretty good history
Yeah Yeah Yeah It’s you know it’s worked out pretty well Well I mean obviously sorry first year Quinn Quinnipak was a tough one but we
you know we’re we’re practicing at midnight and I I made $6,700 and
I had a teaching job and you know it was it was crazy like you know that first year Uh actually even crazy the first three or four or five years but
it’s funny how life works and um you know I’ve fortunate that it’s it’s worked out well for me
Yeah Being at the right place at the right time for sure Um and then I wanted to talk when you got into coaching like you said you weren’t really thinking about becoming a coach but one of the things that I’ve noticed is that you’ve kind of uh focused on values that are important to you as a coach and to creating a culture here at Quinnipak and that’s something you’ve obviously done for now more than 25 years Uh talk to me about being a coach and creating that culture That’s that’s something really hard to do
Yeah I mean culturees it’s tough you know it’s you can’t just you can’t just snap your fingers let’s have a good culture You know there’s a lot of things that go into it And
and honestly my early years I didn’t put as much stock into it I just didn’t Um so it’s something I I learned as we we went along And
you know Benny Sire was was with me for 12 years and I give Benny a lot of credit He he pushed me a little bit to that and said “Hey you know we
you know we need to get a better culture here.” Um you know we good players Um but I think to win for us to win at the national level we we have to have a lot of selfless players And that’s hard for for these 20 22 year old kids to do because they’ve grown up their whole lives They’ve always been the best player on their team And one of the reasons they’re good is they’re selfish They hold on to the puck They keep it They make play you know at young ages They do It’s you know I’m I’m watching my kids go through like you know you need to have some selfishness to you to be a really good hockey player So but for us you know to compete you know with all the big boys uh who get all the first rounders and and etc etc you know we need to be selfless and have a lot of guys make sacrifices for the betterment of the team So um I couldn’t give you a a threeminute answer on how to build culture because it’s it’s probably a 4hour answer Like it’s just there’s so many things that go into it but I think in the end
it’s about roo recruiting the right type of kid that fits what we want here at Quinnipak and uh you know Joe Dum and Mike Corbett do a great job with that Before Billy Riga he just left went to Holy Cross when the head coach there but they did a really good job of of getting the right type of kid that that fit well into our system
Yeah that’s another thing I think that speaks volumes to what you do because you’ve brought in so many of your former players that had the culture They obviously understand it I think that’s a unique thing that you’ve been able to do so that you can almost carry that culture throughout the entire you know team even down to the assistant coaches Yeah it helps I mean you don’t have to have an alum be an assistant Um it’s nice to have I I think to have one on staff of of the head coach or the two assistants I think it’s nice to have one of the three
which is what we have right now
Um but you don’t it doesn’t have to be that way you know Um and again it’s about it’s about getting good people that are going to work hard and and be committed And you know my staff now and and in recent years you know even I you know I I mentioned Benny but Reed Cashman and some of the other guys I’ve had have been you know just outstanding coaches Like there there’s a lot of things I think I’ve done well in my career at Quinnipak There’s certainly some things I’ve done poorly Uh I try to fix those things but but maybe the best thing I’ve done is hire good assistant coaches
There you go
Uh that that that’s probably my one slot I’ve always had a really good staff and
and um you know that’s important It’s you know and then and then I need to sometimes make sure I back away and and give them opportunities to succeed and and let them let them have the whistle and let them do things on their own too You can’t you know you can’t control everything And if you have good assistance you got to make sure you utilize them properly
Absolutely And then obviously you were the 2016 Spencer Penrose National Coach of the Year Same year you guys go to the second national championship Uh can you talk about what it means to the program to play in a national championship
yeah I mean it’s a unique experience uh both times I mean the first one was crazy you know even I just I vividly remember that first year uh that 201213 season when we got voted number one in the country and you know that the first for the first time ever It was it was unbelievable uh really as as a coach and I our players and our alums and our president and everybody was just we were just I think everybody was in a little bit of shock you know remember President Ley coming in to talk to the team that day you know and I don’t I don’t know if we needed to do it but he called me up and said can I come down and talk to the guys absolutely John whatever whatever you need because he was he was so good
but it was great you know and he’s in there and just the pride that came through and
you know it was kind of a surreal moment for me but uh but it’s hard to do like you’re
you know to be number one in the nation and be even ran even if you know now we’re ranked number two in the nation It’s crazy Um but uh you know hey it’s a credit to our players They’re working hard They’re competing and
and um you know we we’ve had some good balances too along the way this season But uh but I love I love I love the team that we have now The buyin’s been excellent So we’ve we’ve gotten rewarded for that
And you got a beautiful building
We do Yeah That that helps with recruiting and for sure You know you need that
Yeah Absolutely I I’ve noticed that I can remember the days when I was here you know class of04 and everybody was talking about it coming and coming and and when it finally came it was well worth the wait wasn’t it
yeah it was It was it was uh you know there’s a lot of things that have happened to kind of launch our program but um you know what what President Ley and Jack McDonald did to get to get this off the ground and running and
you know I I think more important than us getting a rink is they they did it right You know they didn’t you know you could have gone halfway we don’t have enough money whatever I mean they
they went all in on it and really was a fantastic facility and still is a fantastic facility
Absolutely It’s beautiful Um I wanted to also talk about uh something you did for me Okay there was a piece of advice uh that I learned uh kind of from you uh that you may not know about but I want I want to share this There’s two things One uh you taught me that uh I’m not going to take Nyquil the night before an early bus ride to the airport
That’s great That’s good advice Yes
So if anybody’s out there you’re an athlete I’m I was the broadcaster at the time but I was getting over uh a a pretty good cold that had got me down And uh the next uh day we were flying out at like 3:30 in the morning We had to be on the bus to go to out to Air Force
And I was like “Oh I got to be ready for this trip I got to be healthy I got to get make sure I’m well rested.” So I took the Nyquil and uh I’ll never forget getting on that bus and looking at you and I was like I know I screwed up coach I know And uh getting on that bus but it was uh it was something I won’t forget And I appreciate you letting the bus wait
Yeah I’m I’m actually shocked that I did let it wait I was soft back then because now I’d be we’d be gone I’d be like “You better take an Uber We’ll meet you at the airport.” I’m shocked I was uh I was nice enough to wait for you at that point
Yeah And then the other thing you you don’t even know that you passed it along to me but I’m going to pass this one along to anybody out there listening uh is that in my days of the AHL I remember uh traveling with you and and the team And you were telling somebody at the time I think it was on a bus or something that you hang your dress shirts in the shower so that then they get rid of the wrinkles faster You don’t have to iron them And I was like that’s brilliant and I’ve been using that trick ever since
So Triple G those are the those are the two things you take away from me was the Nyquil and the and the shower trick with the shirt So I thought I I thought I did better than that with you but you did I wanted to give you a little bit of humor here today of the the behind the scenes stuff that the people don’t get to see
Well the shirt the shirt thing does work
Oh I know It’s beautiful
You got to leave it in there sometimes for like 25 minutes and it gets pretty hot It’s like a sauna in there But I’m sure the hotel’s not happy with that with the hot water bill but it’ll work It’ll work
Uh so that was great But speaking of advice uh let’s talk about um what type of advice you would give to a high school or a prep school player right now who’s trying to get recruited at the D1 level What piece of advice would you give to them what makes them attractive oh that’s hard to give them one piece of advice I mean I I just think you know for a lot of you know like say 16 to 18 16 to 19 year olds right now it’s it’s about commitment You know how committed are you are you committed to your diet are you committed to what you’re putting in your body are you you know so there’s a lot of kids that’ll they’ll go to the gym and they’ll you know hey they’ll work pretty hard and they’ll do this and that and then they’ll they’ll leave there and they go to McDonald’s and so you you just wasted everything you did you know
like there’s a there’s a big discrepancy in in commitment level Um even even kids that we get here at Quinnipak uh the kids that are committed that like you see them get better and then we have some kids that aren’t and they you know they want to go and party and they want to do this and that and it’s hard to be successful at our level doing that So I think it’s about commitment to you know if you’re say 16 17 it’s your diet it’s your training and and even beyond that like are you are you going to the weight room and working hard or you go getting outside your comfort zone and really working hard
and I think that’s a hard thing for a 16 to 20 year old male to realize
there’s a whole another couple levels behind what they’re already doing
Um and I we we see that with kids that come in here too kids are like I you know I’ll grab freshman halfway through the year and they’re like you know what do you think of the weight room and how we do things here and on practice and they’re like coach man I worked my tail off before I got here I work hard in practice and I got here and I I wasn’t even close I didn’t even know I could do this you know
and that’s something that we’re good at is is pushing them outside that comfort zone and getting them to that to that next level But
but there’s so many other things advice I mean even one about not even getting recruited here but just in terms of
like one thing that’s a life lesson just you know social media like
be careful what you post right you know it’s going to follow you around forever It’s coaches are going to look at that We look at that when we recruit kids We want to look at their social media And we’ve actually crossed a few kids off our list when we don’t like their social media content you know if we’re like “Hey you know I don’t I don’t need that in my locker room I don’t need that on.” That’s right So that would be a big big piece of piece of advice too Probably just a life lesson too Not just for athletics
Um and I’ve heard from other assistant coaches as well that I’ve talked to uh you know seeing some stuff on social can be a no you know a straight up no Yeah it’s uh it’s just a really good life lesson Yeah Yep Absolutely And then obviously we’ve talked a little bit about some of the success that you’ve had here but you’ve also developed some great talent uh having players play in the NHL You Devin Taves comes to mind Connor Clifton Talk to me about the athletes that have come here and what it means to have them go play pro
Well it’s always helpful from a recruiting standpoint to have guys in the NHL Like right now Devonte is I mean he’s you know one of the better defenseman in the league I think he’s still a little bit under under the radar but people are starting to realize how good he is
Um but but even more than that and you mentioned Connor and you know like Chase Prrisky got a couple games this year He’s he’s going to be a full-time NHL I think at some point
But it’s for me it’s about you know we need to develop players to be good here
and we need to develop good people you know that they’re going to go on You know I’d love them all to play in the NHL but let’s be realistic they’re not going to do that or go play pro in Europe or whatever But we need to make sure that we’re developing good people and good character habits and good traits and and they’ll be successful in life And that’s something that that you know we take a lot of pride in as a staff because I you know even outside of my NHL guys like we’ve got a lot of successful alums in in the world whether it’s on Wall Street or
CIA or you know whatever they end up doing Um doctors you know whatever Um you know we want them we want to be successful in life and I think you know playing for Quinnipak like it’s it’s hard it’s hard to play for us um like we demand a lot of them and honestly our our players they love it They love the demands that are put on them They love they love the structure um and they thrive in it and um you know that’s that’s one of the reasons we win
Yep That makes sense Um I want to also I always just like to ask my guests how they’ve been pliable in their career So how you’ve adapted you’ve been flexible It could be technology It could be recruiting It could be the pandemic How have you been pliable in your career
um well I think I’m always trying to adapt I think that’s something uh pro probably one of my better strengths is that I’m I I realize like I I don’t know everything I think in my early years I thought I did and now I realize I don’t know anything So I’m always trying to you know uh real really I think you know good teachers are good thieves you know good coaches are good thieves like why it’s hard to reinvent the wheel So you know find as many avenues as you can whether it’s reading books or you know watching things on YouTube or whatever The big thing I’ve really been fortunate with the last few years got on I’ve got on team USA a few times So got surrounded by you know phenomenal NHL coaches or NHL players or future NHL players and learned a lot in those environments Um I try to every year you know meet with one or two maybe even three NHL staffs and whether it’s the whole staff or just one coach and exchange information Um it’s you can’t really do a college coach to college coach because you’re going to play them and the NHL guys don’t want to go NHL to NHL So then it you know actually that it happens a decent amount with NHL college interaction happens in the football and basketball worlds too
Yeah
Um but always trying to learn and pick up new things and really like probably one thing that jumps to mind like I remember back in 2008 we
you know we changed our neutral zone I won’t get into the whole details of it but I liked what we were doing Uh I went out and tracked down uh Barry Smith who was uh who had been the associate head coach with the Red Wings when they went all the Stanley Cups with Scotty Bowman
Yeah
And uh he he was the architect of this neutral zone I basically stole his neutral zone
and I didn’t know exactly how to run it Okay But uh I tracked him down and I said “Hey can I can I can I hire you and bring you in for a couple days you know get like a professional development stipen and
we’ll pay your expenses and everything.” And he was he was more than excited He was like “Yeah that’d be great.” You know
so Barry Smith came in and uh and but that was one thing where I adapted you know and that’s
that was a really good life lesson for me in that like I was just blown away with how much I learned from him in just a two-day span And then um it’s hard with the pandemic now but we try to do that you know bring in one or two guests every summer that we’re going to learn something from from from all walks of life
right
um you know and and sometimes it’s uh you know it can be analytic guys One year was an analytic guy and it was it was really helpful So um I’m always trying to learn willing to learn and honestly like I wish there it was easier to learn more You know it’s hard to you get to this level it’s hard to to get ideas and you know a lot of guys don’t want to share
Yeah Um I would say the pandemic was awesome
from a standpoint although it was terrible but the one positive was there was so many Zoom things and
uh Rod Brymore Placement Rod reached out to me and said “Hey,” and I’ve done a few things with him exchanges and he said “Hey I’m on this Zoom call.”
He’s like “You would love this It’s three days a week
You I’ll get you on this I’ll get you on it.” So I jumped on first picture first face I see is Scotty Bowman’s It was It was There was 17 NHL head coaches Wow
A bunch of former NHL coaches a bunch of AHL guys It was only at that point I think it was just me and one other college guy
Um but it was great and everybody had to present each week and then you talked about different things Um but it was
it was a great four to five months Uh three days a week I learned a lot
Yeah
And the coaches were great in the terms they share Usually NHL guys don’t share in that environment they did Um and I said I tell you what you want to put a lot of pressure though When it was my turn to present I was a little nervous you know u it was it was nerve-wracking I can’t remember all One of the topics was power play Like all my I presented a few times but it was pretty nerve-wracking like you know when you know you got Mike Babcock and Barry Trotz and all these great NHL coaches like watching you You like you better do a good job
Bring your game Yeah Absolutely It was a good experience Absolutely Uh and then I I want to kind of finish up with uh some memories and some moments for you that stand out I mean I look here at this building and I see the banners over there I I see the NHL players I see the the growth of the program I can remember being at the North for Ice Pavilion with you Those chicken parm subs by the way were really good there They were They’re highly underrated Uh but what stands out to you as your biggest accomplishment here at Quinnipek uh I don’t I don’t know That’s a That’s a really That’s a difficult question Um I I don’t know if a few things I don’t know if I’d lock in on any one thing I will tell you one thing that I that I always just blows me away and I love I think it’s kind of a cool story was in 2016 um we go to the Frozen Four we have to play BC even though we’re the number one team in the country We have to play Boston College and they’ve got
literally like 500 draft picks first rounders Like it was like
and we had two you know it was it was a mismatch Like they had more talent than us
And we win that game We played great Uh
I was there I remember it was awesome And uh the next day um I remember uh Kenny Sweden telling telling me he’s by RS ID saying hey uh we’re trending number one on uh on Facebook and I’m like well I’m like what do you mean like in Connecticut like like where like in the United States like what he’s like no in the world
And I’m like I’m like whoa
that’s a good one Yeah
In the world we’re number one right now He’s like yeah I go Kenny come on you got to be kidding me I go well well who’s two and he’s like Donald Trump So that was that was all when they just started the primaries
Oh wow
And uh I think Hillary was five and I think Bill Clinton was eight
That was around the time when Bill Clinton got in trouble for meeting someone on the tarmac
Oh that’s right Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah The whole
99 Yeah So anyway
we were ahead of that That’s good though Right
But and I remember then I remember the follow up to that you know some people from the Quinnipak board of trustees coming to me and saying “Rand you don’t even you can’t even put a dollar value on what that’s worth to Quinnipiac and
in PR and marketing and stuff but I always
I wouldn’t say that’s my number one accomplishment but I I think that was pretty cool.” And I still don’t know how it happened but
Right
You know people were clicking on Quinnipak all over the world
We’ll take it Right
Absolutely We’ll take it Uh speaking of that uh let’s uh finish up with uh how people can kind of get in touch with you or the program if they want to learn more about Quinnipak Speaking of that you know they’re searching around they’re trying to learn about the program uh where can they go to get information What’s the best way to kind of start to develop their relationship with Quinnipak
um well our our websites the you know obviously there’s a lot of information there Our social media platforms are good You can learn a lot there I think I think the way it is now with recruiting if you’re talking in that standpoint like we still get a lot of emails and kids reach out and stuff We’re we’re not at that like we try to reply to all of them We get a lot We get inundated
Yeah We’re at the point where we’re going to go find our players you know like so I I think that helps if you’re looking at division three schools to get noticed
or maybe junior team
so sending off an email that kind of thing Yeah I I don’t know how much anymore it helps at the division one level just because there’s so much knowledge out there with the website You know there’s uh there’s a site called Instat and they have everything Like I you know if you said “Hey I got a kid in Maine Can you uh playing at St Dom’s High School
right
i can probably pull him up and watch his shifts.” You know like I don’t you know 20 years ago I needed that I needed him to send me video
Now you don’t really need that You can you can pull up you know if they’re at any you know decent level program you’re going to be able to get access
Their games are online Yeah pretty pretty quickly Yeah
Yeah
Oh that’s pretty cool I like that cuz that’s a good tip too because I think there’s a lot of kids out there right now uh trying to figure out how do I get through the noise how do I get through the noise and um
well you just keep playing Well I think the the the unique thing in hockey is you know there’s there’s very rarely there’s a lot of 18-year-old freshman
Just I’m not saying it’s right or wrong It just it is what it is There’s some 18s you know but the 18s are pretty high caliber players but uh pretty high draft picks usually But most most uh most college kids are you know for hockey men’s hockey are coming in at you know 19 or 20 or 21 You can certainly come at 18
Yeah
But it but it doesn’t happen a lot Um it’s pretty rare So you got to be patient You got to go play junior hockey And there’s a lot of great leagues
Um you know the USHL the NHL and um the NCDC are usually the top three in in the US that produce players And you know we get players from all three of those leagues Certainly we get players from Canada too Um but yeah if you want to play D1 you’re probably going to have to get to one of those leagues or one of the comparable leagues in Canada
Yeah absolutely Well I appreciate the time Ran This has been great It’s always good to see your face first in person for a long time Uh it makes a big difference So I really appreciate you being on the podcast and uh again thank you very much for all the opportunities you’ve given me and the lessons which go far beyond NyQuil
Oh you’re you’re very welcome Triple G It’s uh you know it was it was a fun uh four years back I know it’s a long time ago but it was a fun four years and it’s you know we don’t have that anymore We don’t have you know I don’t we don’t have the student that does that anymore
Um not that any was tough big shoes to fill when you left but
um I just I look back on that uh and just a unique opportunity for you and I think it’s great that Quinnipak you know was able to give you that opportunity and you’ve obviously thrived with it Yeah And I’ll give you the stats here I’ll end with this one stat It’s about 300 miles from Augusta Maine to Hampton Connecticut It is about 900 miles from Sudbury Massachusetts to East Lansing Michigan
Yeah there you go That’s commitment right there That’s what I’m talking about Triple G You were committed I loved it I love it
We’ll end on that one Thanks Rand I appreciate it All right Thank you Thanks for listening to the Athlete Brand Advisor podcast Be sure to check out the show notes from today’s episode and catch up on recent episodes at pliablemarketing.com We also encourage you to share topics and guest ideas by emailing our production staff at [email protected] We love hearing from our loyal listeners and athletes who want to grow their brand So jump in and be part of the podcast because that’s how we roll

In episode 4, Greg Glynn sits down for an exclusive interview with Rand Pecknold, head coach of the Quinnipiac Bobcats men’s ice hockey team.

Pecknold is in 28th season behind the bench for the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey program. He has the most wins of any coach in Quinnipiac history with more than 550. In 2016, he was named the Spencer Penrose National Coach of the Year and College Hockey News National Coach of the Year. He has helped the Bobcats reach the national championship game in 2013 and 2016.

Included in this interview:

• How Quinnipiac University and Rand Pecknold helped Greg start his broadcasting career

• Advice for athletes who want to play NCAA sports at a division 1 school

• Why an athlete’s content on social media matters and how it can ruin their chances to play for a school

• The importance of culture on a team and why it matters

• Advice for 16-19-year-olds about commitment

• How being ranked #1 or #2 in the country helps a college and creates awareness

• The development of Quinnipiac players who play in the NHL, including Devon Toews, Connor Clifton and Chase Priskie 

• How NHL coaches have helped Rand become a better coach

• When and why Quinnipiac started trending #1 on Facebook

• How a new facility helps with recruiting

• Road trip advice and a helpful tip for how to get wrinkles out of your shirt without ironing it

• How Rand has been pliable during his coaching career

Show links:

Quinnipiac Athletics website: https://gobobcats.com/

Quinnipiac Men’s Ice Hockey social media accounts:

Twitter: @QU_MIH

Instagram: @qu_mih

InStat website for recruiting athletes: https://instatsport.com/

Pliable’s Athlete Branding Process: https://pliablemarketing.com/athlete