Life and death. Senior citizen sex. Alex Rodriguez and performance-enhancing drugs.
This is Education 472: Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching. Valorie Kondos-Field is in charge – and it’s a learning environment unlike any other.
“She’s just so … herself,” UCLA women’s basketball player Charlisse Leger-Walker said. “The very first class, I thought she was crazy.”
Kondos-Field, known affectionately as Miss Val, won seven NCAA championships and collected more than 800 victories in her 29 years as head coach of the UCLA gymnastics team. She’s returned to the school as an educator in the School of Education and Information Studies’ Transformative Coaching and Leadership graduate program.
A team of educators has developed a curriculum to give Bruins the tools they need to transition from student – or student-athlete – to coach. EDUC472 is a small but influential piece.
“The main point of the class is to get these young adults to start thinking about what their values are and instructing their leadership values, moral foundation, cultural foundation and style,” Kondos-Field said.
“You have to be authentic, otherwise you will never be a leader worth following.”
Bringing the outside in
On the last day of class, Kondos-Field stands with poise at the front of a classroom in Moore Hall as students and guests funnel in. Balenciaga pumps are on her feet, graffitied with fluorescent, inspirational words and the year “2019.”
A wedding ring is on her left hand and a 2010 national championship ring is on the other. Not a hair is out of place.
There are two main objectives for today’s three-hour class: discussion of Kondos-Field’s first book, “Life Is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance” – she has a second in the works – and final presentations. Each student has prepared a 2-minute speech explaining their coaching philosophy.
It feels more like a gathering than a class. Former UCLA gymnast and NCAA champion Katelyn Ohashi leans on a table while Kondos-Field’s 90-year-old roommate, Beverly, is seated on the other side of the room and looking refined in a turquoise sweater and sepia-tinted sunglasses.
“She has made me reframe my thoughts of what getting older is,” Kondos-Field tells the class, referring to Beverly.
Guests are critical to the course’s effectiveness. Students read a book per week about a particular coach, then guests are invited to discuss the subject matter with the group.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has made an appearance. Former Bruin and NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo and baseball icon Alex Rodriguez have stopped by.
“If we’re studying say, Pete Carroll, that week,” Kondos-Field said, “Alex doesn’t speak to Pete, but Alex Rodriguez comes in and talks about how to move from being a player, a student, to choreographing your life. Crafting your life.”
There is one regular face in the class – Director of New Initiatives Arif Amlani, who has a background in philosophy and philosophy of education. Amlani has co-taught the class for six years, although at this point he sees himself as playing more of a supportive role.
He teams up with Kondos-Field to connect leadership techniques with ancient philosophy passed down through centuries. The unexamined life is not worth living, as Socrates said.
“I have full confidence in her and the wisdom that she imparts,” Amlani said. “I am perfectly OK letting her do her thing.
“And conversely, there might be times when I do my thing. I have a very different style and I’ll talk about very different kinds of things. I might go more into philosophical issues. We have that understanding and, really, it’s by design. We have full confidence in each other.”
A strength space
UCLA running back Anthony Frias II is laughing and holding his phone in front of him, the screen facing the class.
Instagram’s algorithm showed him a postgame interview of classmate and former Bruins softball player Sharlize Palacios. Her teammates stacked bats in her arms and topped them with a Squishmallow before placing a box of Reese’s Puffs cereal on her head.
Palacios shakes her head as wide smiles spread to everyone who sees the clip.
Before class had even started, the group was applauding Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalić as they walked into the room. The women’s basketball players were returning to campus fresh off a Big Ten Conference Tournament victory over USC.
“Being in the grad classes, everybody is so curious about the other sports,” said Leger-Walker, who sat out this past season recovering from a torn ACL. “They’ve come out to our games and then the next day, they were all congratulating us. It just builds that sense of community at UCLA, and it’s pretty special. Everyone’s genuine about supporting each other.”
The dialogue flows freely in Education 472 but Kondos-Field is always at the forefront. She requires that all students stand up when they speak and if there are guests in the room, they introduce themselves and name the sport that they play.
Even in the Zoom-based first class of the semester, Kondos-Field asked the students to unmute themselves as she called on each of them. Leger-Walker recalls being good-naturedly pestered by her instructor until she turned her camera on during that class, a purpose she now understands.
“It’s very interactive, very discussion-based, very opinion-based and because it’s a graduate class, people aren’t afraid to speak up and share their opinion and share their perspective,” Leger-Walker said.
“Honestly, it’s probably one of the top three classes I’ve had in my entire college career so far. And that’s five years, so that’s a lot of classes.”
Athletes of the same sport sit together in the U-shaped seating arrangement but intermingle with each other during group work, asking questions about others’ sports or what their future might hold.
Casual conversations swirl into silly ones and juxtapose themselves with words of emotional depth, revealing to students that vulnerability doesn’t have to be a weakness.
An in-class anecdote from Kondos-Field: She once declined a dinner invitation from a group of gymnastics friends because she thought gymnastics gossip might end up dominating the conversation.
Instead, she planted herself on the couch beside Beverly. They worked on knitting projects in their pajamas, watched tennis and “talked about older people having sex,” she recalled.
Later in the class, Beverly reflects on her experience with cancer and Kondos-Field adds details about her own challenges while going through breast cancer.
Dugalić shares that she and her brother didn’t always have a basketball to play with while growing up. In another class, Joshua Swift delved into the hurt of being cut from the football team two days after the season had ended.
“It was riveting,” Kondos-Field said. “It was one heartbeat in that class, listening to Joshua Swift stand up and share his pain with everyone.”
Even Alex Rodriguez lets down his defenses when he enters Moore Hall.
“He always knows I’m going to throw him hardballs,” Kondos-Field said. “I start every time he’s in class – I go, ‘Why did you do it? Let’s talk about the performance-enhancing drugs. Why did you do it?’ And he gets really vulnerable, he gets really humble.”
Gray areas brighten and blurred lines in communication snap into focus. Tough conversations aren’t just unavoidable – they’re welcomed. But don’t call it a safe space. In the words of Kondos-Field, it’s a strength space.
Not just a degree
Colleges and universities across the country offer many coaching-related degrees, but none are as intensive as the Transformative Coaching and Leadership program at UCLA.
It was launched in fall 2019 and built on former UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden’s adage that coaching is teaching, creating a win-win situation for the university.
The master’s program was a perfect match for graduate student-athletes who wanted to pursue coaching or leadership positions. On the other side, it allowed UCLA to attract and retain student-athletes.
“After hearing about that program, it was definitely another check box that I could put for UCLA,” said Leger-Walker, who transferred from Oregon State a year ago.
Jessica Clements, the leadoff hitter on the Bruins’ softball team, had a similar experience. The 2024 Big West Player of the Year at Cal Poly had her pick of schools, but Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said the Transformative Coaching and Leadership experience made UCLA a top choice.
Clements will finish playing this season, then be a graduate manager next season before beginning her search for a coaching job.
“It’s everything she could possibly want,” Inouye-Perez said. “Academics, athletics, the experience as an athlete, the experience as a grad manager, transformative coaching, a leadership master’s program.
“And then she wants to be able to fly it out there and figure out where she could land a coaching position, which I believe is going to be very, very easy for her.”
There are two UCLA gymnasts in the program who are taking Kondos-Field’s class: Carissa Clay and Chae Campbell – or “Chae girl” as Kondos-Field affectionately calls her during class.
“I’ve seen them both grow in the way that they communicate and the confidence that they hold themselves with and also how they show up as a leader,” Bruins gymnastics coach Janelle McDonald said.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to be able to continue their education and their sport, but also just learn a lot about life.”
Transactional vs. transformative
Sue Enquist was a transactional head coach when she helmed the UCLA softball team for 18 seasons. She was tough on her players but empowered them, and won 10 NCAA championships between 1982 and 2004 as a result.
“I loved it,” said Inouye-Perez, who won three national championships as a player under Enquist.
“She’s, like, man, if I were to coach the way I did back then versus understanding what’s needed today, I’d be a whole different coach today than I was back then,” Inouye-Perez recalled.
Enquist, along with Kondos-Field, is now embracing transformative coaching, which emphasizes athlete growth while still putting emphasis on success.
Transformative – sometimes called transformational – coaching sees sports beyond winning and losing, supporting athletes as they undergo difficult situations in order to create personal growth.
“Everybody coaching today should definitely understand what transformative means,” Inouye-Perez said, “because if you’re not, you put yourself at risk of not only not succeeding, but also being fired for not getting the fact that you no longer can be transactional. Everyone’s looking for everyone to have a quality experience, to learn and grow and be better people.”
The current generation of college students has likely experienced a mix of the transactional, do-as-I-say coaching style and transformative coaching. The future, as Inouye-Perez and those in the Transformative Coaching and Leadership Program believe, is the latter due to its ability to meet the mental and physical needs of this generation’s student-athletes.
“If we were teaching this class in the ’80s, a lot of people in the class would not have experienced what transformational leadership feels like,” Kondos-Field said.
“But this generation has experienced both. And now, guess what? Since you’ve experienced both, you get to choose. You don’t get to just say ‘because that’s how I was coached.’ Or ‘that’s how I was parented.’ It’s a choice.”
Philosophies built to last
It’s time for the grand finale of Education 472. The last task of the last class is for each student to present their personal coaching philosophy in 2 minutes.
Kondos-Field proudly tells the class that Cam Brown, a former student and women’s basketball player, had secured a job offer by reciting her philosophy during an interview. Dugliać, equally proud, films her instructor retelling the story on her phone to send to Brown.
“The interesting part is I tend to overcoach,” Kondos-Field said. “I tend to give them too much information. And Dr. Amlani, he’s like, let them figure it out.”
The ways in which this group of students figured out the coaching philosophy assignment are myriad.
Swift has a central theme – “Keep it G” – and involves pillars that all begin with the letter G. Beach volleyball player Natalie Myszkowski talks about the importance of preparation and how “the dumbest you can look in the rain is wet.”
Swimmer Joanie Cash shows a graphic of a blue-and-yellow bridge that she had created to demonstrate the pillars of her philosophy. Leger-Walker gives an energetic and clear presentation, but not before she discloses that she struggled to decide which leadership style they learned about was her favorite.
“I don’t think that I’ve ever sat down to this extent and thought about leadership the way I have this quarter,” Leger-Walker said. “It can be such a general term thrown out there. Like, what is a leader? Everybody has a different perspective on it, but I didn’t realize how complex it truly was.”
Each student’s face is the future of leadership, and its powerful ideals are felt in the presence of and passed down from the instructor.
Kondos-Field tells them in a brief, spirited lecture that she was never afraid of getting fired while she was coaching at UCLA and that she would still hold true to her own coaching philosophy today – which includes no chewing gum and no hair ties on wrists, of course.
And she is steadfast in that as an educator, which will forever resonate with her students.
“Everyone is different 100%,” Leger-Walker said, “but there are so many different ways and different skills and different experiences that you can draw from to really have your own philosophy so that you stay true to that.
“No matter what.”