PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
⚖️Taking a Holistic Approach to Athlete Development 📈 feat. Head Coach of Choate, Drew Dawson
This episode, we're joined by Drew Dawson, the Head Coach of Choate Rosemary Hall. Drew shares his journey from central Pennsylvania to playing Division 1 basketball at Lafayette and the University of New Hampshire, and how his experiences as a player shaped his transition into coaching. We dive into the realities of D1 basketball, the complexities of the recruitment process, and the importance of holistic player development.
Drew discusses the evolving landscape of prep school basketball, the significance of education in a student-athlete's journey, and how meditation and yoga play a crucial role in player development. We also explore the unique aspects of Choate Rosemary Hall, its prestigious alumni, and why it's an excellent choice for aspiring student-athletes.
📌 Key Topics:
- Drew Dawson's D1 Basketball Journey
- The Realities and Hype of D1 Basketball
- Transitioning from Player to Coach
- Navigating the D1 Recruitment Process
- Holistic Development: Meditation and Yoga
- Why Choate Rosemary Hall Stands Out
- Notable Alumni and School Legacy
- Balancing Sports and Education
#Basketball #PrepSchool #DrewDawson #ChoateRosemaryHall #D1Basketball #StudentAthlete #CollegeRecruitment #AthleteDevelopment #HolisticGrowth #Meditation #Yoga #NotableAlumni #SportsEducation #BasketballCoaching #PREPAthletics
🗒️About Drew Dawson:
Drew Dawson is the Head Coach at Choate Rosemary Hall, known for its prestigious academic and athletic programs. A former standout guard, Drew played Division 1 basketball at Lafayette College and the University of New Hampshire. He has served as a D1 assistant coach at the University of Hartford and Bryant University, contributing to player development and game strategy. At Choate, Drew led the basketball team to multiple NEPSAC tournament appearances, including winning the 2018 New England Prep School Class A championship.
🔗 Connect with Drew:
Email | adawson@choate.edu
Twitter | https://x.com/drewdawson7?lang=en
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewdawsononline/
Website | https://www.choate.edu/
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/choatehoops/
Twitter | https://twitter.com/choatehoops
🔗 Connect with Cory:
Website | https://www.prepathletics.com
Twitter | https://twitter.com/PREP_Athletics
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/prep.athletics/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/PrepAthletics
Email | coryheitz@gmail.com
Phone | 859-317-1166
🔖 Subscribe to the PREP Athletics Podcast:
iTunes | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prep-athletics-podcast/id1546265809?uo=4
Spotify | https://open.spotify.com/show/6CAKbXFiIOhoHinzsReYbJ
Amazon | https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/3c37179d-3371-47f9-9d97-fd569e8802a7/prep-athletics-basketball-podcast #AmazonMusic
Cory Heitz (00:01)
Welcome to this week's episode of the PREP Athletics Podcast. I'm proud to have joining me Coach Drew Dawson from Choate Rosemary Hall. Now Choate Rosemary Hall known as Choate is one of the top five prep schools in the world through rankings every year. They've got an amazing alumni list to include JFK, Ivanka Trump, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bill Simmons, and many, many, many others, which we talk about on this podcast.
Drew talks about going from central Pennsylvania to playing D1, to being a D1 assistant coach for eight years, and then his time as a prep school coach, and thinking about new ways of doing things, thinking about being present. A really good conversation with Drew, and I think you'll like it a lot. So thanks so much for tuning in. Enjoy the podcast.
Cory Heitz (01:08)
Drew, welcome to the podcast.
Drew Dawson (01:10)
Great to be here. Appreciate it. Good to see you, Cory.
Cory Heitz (01:12)
Yeah, good to see you too. And you played college basketball at Lafayette. And my question for you is, where did you come from and how did you get good enough to play at the D1 level?
Drew Dawson (01:23)
Well, in terms of the D1 level, I did a lot of dishing and taking charge to stay on the floor. I can tell you that if you've met me, obviously you have. But at my size and position in college, it was, I was a role player at Lafayette, but always had the dream to play at the highest level and was fortunate to do so. Seems like obviously a little more hair ago and etc, etc. I got done in 03.
but originally from Pennsylvania, central PA went to a, you know, a powerhouse for that, that area, Trinity Catholic and just a big football area, Cory, but I just caught the, you know, the hoops bug and, and had a chance to, you know, be on the right teams. You know, it always takes, you know, it's a team sport, so you gotta be in the right place with the right people. And just was very fortunate, you know, fall in love with hoops and, and, you know, and, and just pursue that. And I was fortunate to get recruited.
Probably in terms of having an all around career, if you were gauging it on minutes and roles and everything, it was probably better suited for, you know, high D3. But I always had that dream of playing Division 1. I was fortunate to follow that to University of New Hampshire. And then, you know, I finished up at Lafayette College in the Patriot League for a legendary coach who's since retired, but Fran O 'Hanlon. So I was a part of, you know, very fortunate to be a part of some of his championship teams there.
Cory Heitz (02:47)
Yeah, and when you were playing there, like, what was the best part of being in a D1 program? What was the most challenging part?
Drew Dawson (02:53)
I would say, you know, obviously beyond just the hype of division one, you know, and even that has changed. You know, you and I have talked a lot about, you know, one of the things and I'm sure, you know, your listeners know, you know, you're big on the educational piece with your platform. And, you know, one of the things that that that kids need to be educated to, especially today is and they know this organically because they're very much a part of the social media.
craze and the different technologies and live streaming. But, you know, when I played back in the late 90s, early 2000s, there was that added hype of, you know, playing on TV or, you know, at the highest level, getting the added media attention, you know, and that certainly had an influence. You know, you never want any decision to be too extrinsic, right? But certainly when you're a kid coming up through a sport that you love and trying to pursue to the highest level, you know, the glamour of Division One was there, you know.
But it's amazing how many different avenues these kids can get attention and support it. But for me, a lot of it was just wanting to pursue at the highest level. And Lafayette was just a great opportunity for me to do that.
Cory Heitz (04:11)
Yeah, absolutely. I think people that play the D1 level need to share with kids nowadays these experiences so they know like, hey, it's not all the March Madness highlights you see come tournament time. Like it's a grind, not just during the season, but in the off season as well. And you went from playing in D1 program and becoming a D1 assistant coach for a long time. Talk to me about that. Like what did you learn during your time at Lafayette, at Hartford that you incorporate now as a prep school coach?
Drew Dawson (04:40)
Yeah, and just, you know, just what you said, I mean, obviously, just starting out, you're, you know, answering your questionnaire with, you know, what was the things I learned at Lafayette and Division one and certainly, you know, in a different capacity as a coach, but a lot of the same themes is once you get past the glamour of it, the hype of it, you know, again, I think every kid at every level is feeling that now just because of the trickle down. Obviously, I'm, you know, I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about the portal and NIL and how that's affected things, but.
The reality is every level is so competitive and that was the biggest wake up call I had. I was from a small Catholic school, private school in Central PA where we had maybe a half dozen, dozen Division I basketball players, some other football players that went on to play Division I. But it wasn't relatively speaking outside the Central PA bubble, very, very highly successful program. Larry Koslak who's actually still there and has 800 plus wins as a high school coach. But -
Once I got out of there and again, start out in the America East at the University of New Hampshire, it was just that wake up call that this thing never shuts off. I mean, there's no possessions off, there's no days off, there's no practices off. So I think the biggest thing, and I'm sure you've heard this from a lot of players and coaches, not to sound cliche, but it's just making the mental emotional.
adjustment. You know, a lot of people talk about the game, the speed of the game and the strength of the game. I think that has a lot to do with, you know, who you're, you know, specifically who you're referring to. I mean, I think some kids are college ready coming out, especially coming out of prep school. But I think you can't avoid the mental and emotional, the mind body adjustment that you have to go to when you start to face the highest level, you know, of anything you do, but certainly.
relative to what we're talking about college basketball. And that's the thing that is most, I think, emphasized when you go to Division I. And I think it's only getting more intense with it getting older, just in general, again, with the NIL and the, excuse me, the portal, but obviously also the influences, the NIL and the landscape changing. But that was probably the biggest thing. And then as a coach, you try to...
You know, remember those days. I mean, I don't think every former player makes for a great coach, but you try to keep in mind the experiences you had as a former player. And again, for me, I had some ups and downs in my career as a, you know, ultimately a role player. I think I settled into that. You know, I went through the same adjustment that a lot of teenagers and kids go through. But once you sort of recalibrate that and, and, you know, you maintain your love and passion for the game.
you can get in and I say to my kids at Choate all the time, everyone counts on this squad. I mean, everyone plays a role and it's tough to get kids depending on where they came from, what their role was at the previous spot. It can be a tough adjustment and buy -in, but as you know, it's a beautiful thing when you start getting kids to truly understand the idea of organization. We always say every year is a startup for us. This is a new startup. We need to build our...
you know, not to sound cheesy, but we have to build our basketball business. In this case, it's a basketball team trying to compete, you know, compete the right way and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So I think you try to do that as a coach, certainly at the college level, where every kid is coming from a situation where they were the man, they were the top dog. And you try to get them to make that transition as efficiently as possible so they can continue to.
you know, enjoy it's not always an easy road, but enjoy why they start out on this path to begin with and getting them and a lot of that is getting them to understand the power in everyone can contribute in some capacity. It may not look the same, you know, when you were at whatever high school or prep school, but everyone plays a part in this. And if if you do that, the process of that and the result of that, first of all, the journey, the process, but the result.
You may not get everything you want or have the experience exactly how you envisioned it, but there's something to be said about the team and there's something to be said about managing up, you know, and managing your environment to, you know, to contribute and feel the rewards of that, especially if you're a part of a successful program or team.
Cory Heitz (09:07)
Yeah, love that. Let me ask you this though What do you do do kids come to you and they say I want to come to Choate, also my goal is to play D1? Knowing the current reality of how the game is older now the transfer portal is kind of king How do you handle that with players and families with those high expectations?
Drew Dawson (09:25)
Well, it's becoming and I'm right now asking other coaches what they're doing. The whole idea of you can't tell your kids to be coachable and not be coachable yourself. I'm right in the midst of that of trying to pick brain and talk to other coaches about some of their strategies. Cuz everything I just said, excuse me, everything I just said for the last couple minutes just on some of your early questions here, all sounds cute.
At the end of the day, if you don't have some type of, you know, process tailored, especially coaching prep school, like they're coming to prep school, these kids are coming, these families are committing to prep school, to prep school for a certain reason. You know, obviously you would hope in recruiting families, like I heard, you know, a Coach Hurley video not too long ago, just about, you know, in essence, you recruit families just as much as the player. You know, what voices are these players listening to? You know,
tell me the voices they're listening to, I'll tell you decisions they're making. So the bottom line is you want, you want to hopefully have a good canvas that you're working from, but then you have to be able to lean into and prove to them that you understand the process specifically of college recruitment and the college decision process. And I think a lot of that right now, again, not to toot your own horn and you know, we've known each other for a long time, but education.
There has to be a heavy educational piece and it has to be broad. As much as I'd like to think I've had a pretty good run at this as a coach at different levels, I've been very fortunate in my career to coach at the highest level in division one. I've had short stint overseas. I've been at Choate for a while now. That's one voice and especially when they're trying to make a very subjective.
set of decisions and it gets very myopic because there's, you know, the cost of education is out of control in this country. You know, just again, the poor, the influence that's had on college recruiting, the NIL, which is only complicating it from a, you know, from a sense of urgency for these families and kids that create a brand for themselves in a given moment. So I think, you know, you do become one voice regardless of what your resume looks like. And I think there's powers in numbers and, you know, a platform like yourself. That's why I was getting on that.
very appreciative to be on here and just educating them and showing the data. It was what, lesson three, Cory, to begin with, that go on to play competitive college basketball, either one, two, or three. And now you mix in the world's very flat and international recruiting, and then you look at the numbers at Division I influenced even more so as I'm repeating myself with just with the NCAA transfer portal. And those percentages get dire.
So it's not impossible. There's still every year you're going to have high school kids going to the highest level and then the domino effect from there. But just trying to educate them and not starting in November. You know, when a kid commits to Choate, you know, in the spring, you start to have those conversations. You know, there's the recruiting piece. You've recruited the kid, the family to Choate. Obviously, some of those questions are being asked naturally along.
the way in terms of them making a decision, trying to get a feel for the coach they're going to send their kid to, the kid's going to play for. But then you want to start to have a set of conversation that is a little more specific to adding on to maybe previous conversation, but what they have to improve at. The one thing I'll say, not to sound wordy, but what about getting better? I don't want to sound like one of those coaches, but it's amazing how quickly the -
conversation and a little bit below the surface conversation where there's a healthy ego. And it's not just me being on a bully pulpit. I learned more from the kids and what they don't understand is you learn more from your players than they do from you, right? I mean, I keep getting a little bit older, Cory, you and I keep, although I'll tell you that beard looks pretty good, man, I must say. But -
Maybe it's just the fact that I don't have quite as much up top that I noticed that. But the bottom line is we keep getting older and they stay the same. So we learn plenty from them. But what about the healthy conversation around, first of all, just your mind, body development, your player development and using that as a tool to increase your odds at maybe being in the shop window for the level you aspire to be at. And I've been fortunate, the kids I've recruited, we've had those conversations.
Cory Heitz (13:50)
Thanks.
Drew Dawson (14:04)
then you quickly got to move it towards and that, you know, a very heavy, excuse me, heavy educational piece on these are the realities of, of recruiting right now. And if you don't take my word for it, you need to find voices and we need to put voices in front of you that can paint this reality where it sinks in a bit. And then from there, we're not trying to, you don't want to ever kill a kid's dream, but let's make sure we, you know, we navigate here and we keep certain options open. I mean, cause at the end of the day, it's fine. The right fit. Right. So,
Maybe a little bit of a tangent there on that answer, but kind of shooting from the hip and what I'm thinking about as a coach. And I'm trying to have a lot of conversation to gain more insight on what other coaches are doing. I've just sat down with my AD to end the year and he was asking me about some things we can do. And I said, hey, let's possibly bring in some outside voices that are very credible. Not that we don't have good resumes across our coaching staff, across every sport, but let's continue to put.
you know, let's not be myopic even the way we're presenting it to our student athletes, because it's not just basketball, you know, you know, and let's just continue to educate these kids from different angles. Because one thing I will say is kids these days, kids these days, there you go, but kids these days have more access to information than ever before. Now, I think that's good for a couple of reasons. I think that's good. I think it's good and bad. But the good side of it is this is that.
I think they're very resourceful. So instead of having to always lead them to water, I think you just kind of, you know, put them in the right direction, put some guard rails around them, you know, because you have to coach a mentor, but they they're very resourceful and you and and and they'll find the information. So there's a level of, you know, authenticity and truth as a coach you need to to come with to.
Cory Heitz (15:43)
Thank you.
Drew Dawson (16:01)
to get the message across. If not, it's quickly skewed, it's discredited. So I think in some ways, the coaches have to continue to get better and evolve, right? And then the players, the bad side, the good and bad, is the bad players, there's no ignorance is bliss. You do have the information. You are resourceful. You understand how to get to certain things, whether it's through the technologies or social media or whatever else, the World Wide Web.
But then if you continue to get feedback, whether it's one voice, the coach or numerous voices, you know, depending on how that's presented to a kid, then you have to then navigate the realities, the information at hand. And I think that's where to your point, just going back to the end of the question, I think that's where things can get a little goofy is, you know, we're not magicians here. It doesn't matter if I'm a former division one coach, player or not, you know, it's about.
collecting data, obviously getting better, being in the right shop window, doing all those things, which you obviously help kids find the right fit for prep school. But given those things and given the kid is on a path to be recruited, et cetera, et cetera, you know, it's getting the information and then assessing the appropriate response and navigating from there. And I think all that sits on a pretty heavy educational piece at this point in time.
Cory Heitz (17:21)
Yeah, absolutely. But you know, you talk about getting better. And one thing I think about immediately is when you talked about before we got on the call, meditation and how you've got your players meditating now and doing yoga, which I think is great because it's time for them, you know, to not have any outside influences come in. But then you talk about getting better. I wonder how much development both in the classroom, both socially, both on the court and improving a kid's basketball IQ is missed out on.
because they're spending their time on their phones, right? Just wasting time or connecting that way. And you're working with the youth of today on a daily basis. Do you see the phone affecting potential time in the classroom, time on the court, social connection?
Drew Dawson (18:05)
Mean the short answer is because I've given you a few wordy answers. So the short answer is I do think it's had an effect Okay I think probably But you could also go both ways with that, right? So I'd say in terms of coaching the negative effect would be
And as young people, I mean, you know, if you think back to when I'm 44 years old, when I was even 24, but certainly when I was 17, 18 years old, you know, just truly understanding the power of presence and being in the moment and maximizing the moment. You know, I do a corny thing with the kids where I walk in a straight line and put one foot in front of the other, you know, and I'll say these are and they're looking at me like, you know, I'm walking like I look like a duck, you know, walking across the court and they're, you know, usually huddled up or.
On the sidelines, every foot, every step is the present moment, is a moment in time. And if you can really sharpen your ability and begin to understand how to be present, how to be in the moment and then within the moment, be the best version yourself and navigate your environment, in this case, basketball team, a practice, a workout, a game, whatever. And you can get.
pretty good at that. You don't even have to get great at it because you'll never arrive to perfection in that, right? But if you can get pretty good at it, you know, now it's like that old saying, you know, the saying that if you tell the truth all the time, you don't need to remember like you're putting one moment in front of the other and that naturally is going to be a huge deterrent and a huge way to combat all the distractions that come at you and certainly via technology and phones and devices. So,
Simply what you do is, and I know I'm not, I'm one of hundreds and thousands of coaches turn, there's no devices in the gym. We do a team meal, we collect the phones. If the phone goes off, it can be in a bag, it can be in their book bag or gym bag, depending on what the, obviously I'd show you your locker room, but if it's we're on the road at a game or something like that, if it's in the bag or on the bus, we shouldn't hear it. Now that takes,
that takes a lot of will on the part of our coaches and our staff, you know, to... Yeah, well, I appreciate you saying that because there you go, like giving in, you know, I don't think it's actually, you know, I appreciate you putting me on the spot there. I actually don't think it's a big deal to put it on mute. I don't think it's a big deal to not pull it out or not bring it into, you know, certainly a space where you're gonna...
Cory Heitz (20:24)
little bit of will on the kids part just turn the mute button on right
Drew Dawson (20:45)
you know, work out and get better and play basketball. But again, I think there's been so many these kids have had such an influx of these technologies and devices and all the things you can do. And listen, I'm a Cory, I'm a big fan of technology. You know, you and I know each other well enough to know that. I mean, just look at, you know, I'm looking at this screen and this platform and, you know, this podcast software. I mean, this is it's great, you know, and it's created such a flat world where.
It doesn't matter what age you are yet, we have so much access to information and things we can harness to become a better person, human, coach, whatever you're into. But I think, especially for kids at a stage that they're in, that we get them in prep school, you just have to make sure that it's within reason. So I think one of the biggest ways to start educating them on that is forget even what the technology is. It could have been the TV in the 50s.
It's more of, you know, understanding the power of presence and the power of mind -body connection. You know, it doesn't matter if you're present, if then you're not, you know, the stimulus response isn't there with the body. That's why you have to be stretched. That's why you have to be hydrated. You know, that's why you need good nutrition. You know, it all goes, it's all interconnected. You know, unfortunately, I've learned some of these things and I've started buying more into these things, you know.
Little bit later, I wish I would have known or bought, you know, people would put some of this stuff in front of me, but I wish I would have committed to it as a player and during my playing days, you know, I'm starting to flirt with it, but I've really bought into it as my own life unfolds and I get a little older, but certainly as a coach and with every year it's, you know, you're trying to, you know, the X's and O's to me, and there might be coaches that listen to this that would totally disagree. I mean, I believe the X's and O's maybe 10 % and you can argue the -
Cory Heitz (22:38)
Mm.
Drew Dawson (22:38)
At this point, the concept is if you've been coaching long enough, you're never complacent. You're always trying to get better at a balanced play to your arsenal, right? Something out of a timeout. You know, of course you need to have situational play and time and score and things you'll call and just a general X's and O's philosophy and approach that. But once you get to a reasonable level of that, right? I think...
More of the time needs to be spent on between the ears with players. And I know this isn't a new thing, there's a ton of content out there with people speaking to the psychology of it and the mind body of it. But man, am I so bought into that. I mean, the game is maybe 10 % X's and O's and 90 % psychology. And I think the biggest thing is, full circle to your question, if you can get the kids to buy into the fact that you're not BSing them, you're putting.
real stuff in front of them. Maybe not always right, they may not always agree with it. But if you really get them to understand that you care, you know, not only in your actions, but the information like in this this whole thing of prep school and deciding on prep schools and your your platform is about, you know, putting the right information and the right navigation for these kids to have opportunities and pick the right prep schools, right. And you've been very good at that. But there's an authenticity that I've picked up on with what you do, you know.
And it's the same thing, you need to show them they care before they care what you coach, say, do, etc. I think that's it. I don't know if that's what you're looking for, if that's aligned with where you're going with the conversation, that last question, but that's shooting from the hip, that's me, and that's what we're trying to do at show. Never perfect, as you know, but it all rests on people and kids and a lot of chemicals that run across our head every day.
Cory Heitz (24:25)
Yeah. And you mentioned, it just got me thinking about if I was in college 25 years ago, the things I would do different now, such as hydrating when I wake up in the morning, taping my mouth while I sleep, meditating just 10 minutes a morning, not drink four Mountain Dews at night while studying, you know, to not fall asleep, eating a little bit better, you know, just those things there could have made a 10 to 20 % difference physically, you know?
taking naps when, when available versus messing around. So there's a trade off between doing healthy stuff, but we're in our middle forties now, Drew, and we know this stuff through, you know, an extra 25 years of experience, but now we're trying to tell kids the same stuff. Now that we know it, whether kids pay attention to it or not is one thing, but you know, the information's out there, all the information's out there. There's really no secrets anymore. So it's up to coaches now. It's up to parents to do research. It's up to players to decide what they want to do.
Drew Dawson (25:00)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right.
Cory Heitz (25:20)
And then go forward with it. So there's no secret sauce anymore. It's out there for everybody. Now put the phone down, get your sleep, get your studies in and do what you got to do to make yourself marketable to a college coach. Right.
Drew Dawson (25:32)
Well, this is going to sound very, first of all, I wanted to ask you the taping. It broke up just a tad there, but the taping of the mouth, I'm not aware of that. Can you, not to veer off, but can you, yeah.
Cory Heitz (25:47)
We can talk about where everyone on this podcast, so just know that. I learned seven years ago when I did a three day clinic with Gabby Reece and Laird Hamilton at their house in Malibu about a lot of breathing, a lot of cold weather, a lot of heat, a lot of exercise. And one of the things that came away that I do every day there is one, I drink a whole mason jar of water with Himalayan sea salt. First thing in the morning, I wake up. Secondly, I do breathing exercises slash meditation every morning.
And then this is when I got into the sauna in the ice. But one thing I learned is taping your mouth shut is very beneficial at night when you're sleeping to get good quality breathing in. Right. Now the nose was physiologically built to breathe through, right? Your mouth was built for talking and eating and to get big amounts of air in an emergency. Right. That's when, when you do a sprint, you're huffing and puffing because your nose just can't take in as much air, but your nose,
You know, it pressurizes your air, it moistens your air, it filters out dirt and bacteria and you get a much fuller breath, probably 10 to 20 % more efficiency breathing through your nose than your mouth. That's why you never see horses or cheetahs panting, right? They've got big nostrils and they're some of the fastest animals on the planet. They know how to breathe. When you see a prize fighter in a corner during in between rounds, they're breathing through their nose.
Right? So you pair mouth tape with like a, a breathe right strip that opens up your nose a little more and you sleep at night. There's a good chance you'll feel better in the morning. And I know that because I had a deviated septum growing up that I'd have surgery on. So I've been a mouth breather. It was for 40 years. I breathe through my mouth in the past seven. I've been taping it at night and I wake up more refreshed. Right. And if I have to sleep without tape on my mouth, I wake up feeling horrible. And I must've felt that way for 40 years without knowing any better. Cause that was my baseline.
Right? So there's hostage tape that's out there. It's popular. I just get Scotch 3M micro pore tape on Amazon. It's hard to keep on with my beard I've got, but I do not sleep without it anymore. And that's one of the things I would have done at the Academy. And one thing I'm just trying to let people know is that this is for breathing. And here's one last fact. When you start taping your mouth and you don't breathe your nose much, it can be closed off, but do two to three weeks of breathing through it at night or during the day with tape on.
Drew Dawson (27:51)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cory Heitz (28:14)
your nose will expand and allow more air to come through. So you can change your anatomy through use of the nose. And I had to do that. And there's a guy that taught me how to do this name is Brian McKenzie. He still has a deviated septum. So he does everything through one nostril, but he's done it so much. His sinuses have opened up enough to where he can do the breathing he needs to, to be comfortable with it.
Drew Dawson (28:37)
That's crazy. Well, I will tell you this, though. I will say I'm not sure if I'm ready for the nose. I got, you know, you know this by three kids under four. So we have a lot of. Well, I'll say the diapers around this house. I mean, that would be that would be interesting when expanded nose like sniffing like a dog, smell like a dog. But now that's that that is it's you know, and this is a thing like all this different all the different things that you can get.
Cory Heitz (28:46)
And you exactly, you absolutely need to do it then.
Drew Dawson (29:05)
You know certainly the flush the the salt, you know You know, that's one. I mean just you know the idea of Like we have it we have a guy at show Brian Holloway and he's leaned into all this, you know giving them a certain app on nutrition and it's amazing the kids will come back and they and then they'll run with it, especially the kids that really want to play to high level and they'll start looking into You know a lot of this stuff, you know, whether it's exercise science
nutrition and you know, like we started the yoga and you always have the kids. Some of the kids are looking at you like it's you know, know, taboo or what are we doing by the 6th, 7th, you know, because certainly if I talked about taping your mouth, right, and I'm not sure I can go there with with Choate, you know, with that's what we're going to do. I expect you to tape your mouth when you breathe, you know, the next week in the dorms, obviously, you know, but it's there's research behind it. It's something it's, you know, the fact you just spoke five minutes on it.
My point is, is, you know, as goofy as some of this stuff will come off at first to a teenage kid, it's really neat to see if you can just put it in front of them and see if they run with it. And my kids with the meditation, like we use some called insight timer. We'll use it before games. We'll use it, you know, you know, when we do it, you know, at show, you know, and we do it different times. We definitely do it before games. That's something we've done consistently, but we'll do it.
periodically would practice in other workouts depending on what we feel the collective mindset, you know, and mind body level is of the team, right? And I'm totally smitten on all this stuff. And the kids will eventually again, going back to being authentic, like the kids will even if they snicker and it's a little goofy to them at first, certainly if I talked about, you know, what you just spoke to about breathing and they're going to look at you at first, I think, like you have 16 heads.
But as they do that, as again, resourcefulness, as they look into it, as they validate it, as they try and experiment and give it a fair shake. Like one of the things I look for in recruiting, you know, you hear a lot about, you know, what do you look for in recruiting? You know, I look for kids that are inquisitive. Like I, like I, I want kids that, that, like I understand that, you know, they're 18, nine, 17, 18, 19 year old kids. And obviously right now,
with where they're at on their maturity continuum, you know, the bandwidth may be a little bit different, just like we're learning all these different hacks to health, you know, personal development, bop, bop, bop, bop. I mean, we go around the farm about, you know, all those different avenues as you mature and grow, you know, that you tap into to just hack your life to try to be a little bit better, better version of yourself. So they're, you know, at a different point in all that, right?
And in college, your mind opens up even more, et cetera, et cetera. But as much as you can, I try to lean into that. And you say, well, how do you do it? Just even recruiting calls, even as simple as that. Try to get Coach Calhoun, Jim Calhoun, who when he unretired, I had a few kids go from Choate to USJ. He obviously had, as we all know, a legendary career as a head coach at UConn. And then...
came out of retirement to help start the division three program. It's now a top 25 program, a very short period of time. Glenn Miller is now the coach here, has done a great job. But when he unretired, I had sent a couple kids to him. I got to know him pretty well. I mean, I in many ways consider him a mentor now. And the thing he would always say to me is Dawson, find what the kids are interested in. And find what they're interested in.
and lean into that, you know, and poke at that and, you know, and unpack that and you'll get the world from them. You know, you'll get the world from them. And that may not mean anything to do with X's and O's or basketball. At a certain point in time, you know, or to start, but it's just, again, relationship building. You know, we always talk at Choate about, you know, return on relationships. You know, what's our return on relationships and what's our return on engagement?
You know, you need to have engagement before you even have a relationship. So we say row, we all have before we can even thicken the relationship and really build these lifelong, hopefully what become lifelong relationships, we need to row, right? Return ROE, return on engagement. So, and I give the idea about, you know, in order to even get on a path in a team setting, an organizational setting, you know, we can use the analogy of rowing the boat. If half of the boat and you've heard the whole thing about, you know,
I'm not the first coach to use that analogy, but if one half of the boat is rowing, the other half is going to ask the kids, which way is the boat going? Well, it's going in circles, right? So we're headed this way. This is what our goals are. This is what we're trying to do with this season, with this startup. So we need to row. We need to row. We have to agree on the framework. Framework before freedom, rather freedom before framework, and that's chaos in a team setting. You gotta set the framework. And then you gotta let the kids have -
Cory Heitz (34:25)
Mm -hmm.
Drew Dawson (34:30)
have freedom within that and feel their oats and be the player they think they can be and bring what they can bring to the court and expand their game. Obviously, maximizing strengths, minimizing weaknesses in a game setting. But the bottom line is, once we're rowing and we're moving in a certain direction as a group, that's where then you want to start to get a return on those relationships. And one of the things that helps,
You know, I'm a big believer and you don't know your relationship until it implodes. You know, confrontation is the first sign of success with people. You know, it's easy to say a relationship with everything's good, you know, but when your relationship implodes, now where is it? Now, what kind of return can we get? Can we recalibrate it to get the return we wanted and envisioned, you know, between teammates, but then collectively as a program, as a group? And what helps with that? And this is what I say to the kids, what helps with that?
is in that moment you can now look at the framework. You can look at the return on engage. This is when you get the return on engagement. Because we've engaged the mission statement. We're moving in the right direction as a group. Again, not always perfect. We're all individuals first. I never tell kids to lose their individuality. I think that's silly. When coaches bark at that, we all played the game well before we thought we were going to be barked at by a mid 40, 40 -something year old coach.
So we're all individuals, but then we have to understand, you know, what framework are we navigating? What's our mission? What's the goal of this group? And then that's where you kind of get, get everyone moving, hopefully in the right direction where, you know, it just sets the table for hopefully a huge return on the relationships, relationships, the relationship with the game itself. You love a basketball. I see a lot of kids lose love of the game prematurely.
And I think they lose love of the game for the wrong reasons. And so a lot of that is sad to see as a coach. But for another, I guess, conversation. But the bottom line is we want to get a return on our relationships with the game, with each other. And it's amazing how I think all of us, Cory, but certainly young people.
As you get older, you learn to compartmentalize your life because that's just the way it goes. You know, like if you're a father, if you're a husband, if you have to work two jobs or if you're working this job or working on this project, just all the different things that come at you as an adult, you just are forced to learn how to compartmentalize, at least in certain moments, right? You know, situationally. I think kids, especially kids have had a lot of success in one thing.
I've been very successful basketball and everything has kind of fallen out of that, even their academics. They do really good in school because they also know that's gonna fuel basketball. And obviously along the way, vice versa and ultimately, you want a 40 year decision on your academic pursuits. But the reality is, a lot of kids aren't great at compartmentalizing their life.
early on and I think teaching kids again being present to what you do each compartment that let's just take all right this moment this moment let's be present to this and then within this let's engage it and let's figure out you know you know what's the framework going to be what what's the goal what's the mission here and then within that what are the relationships that can be activated you know it goes back to resourcefulness right and and how can we get a return on that and if you start
looking at your life that way instead of, you know, what's the next feed or how can I edit this snap Snapchat? Like I tell the kids all the time, you cannot edit your life, you know, like you just can't. And that's a great thing about team sports is you're in the flesh. You're in the moment. You cannot, you cannot edit that. And so the best way to, you know, assure yourself that, that, you know, you don't have to edit it, is to just be present to it.
and to engage it. Get a return on your engagement and try to get the utmost return on your relationships.
Cory Heitz (38:55)
Love it. Love all that, Drew. Let's do a pitch now for your school. Tell us about Choate Rosemary Hall and what makes it special and, you know, why kids should come there.
Drew Dawson (39:05)
Well, I like to think it's just the basketball, right? And it's the success we've had as a basketball program. But it's a phenomenal school, Cory. I mean, I appreciate you stopping by. A couple years ago, I thought you and I had a nice, we had a good afternoon. It was overdue, more from my end. So I appreciated you sticking with me and stopping by. And I'm sure you'd be the first to say, when you walk around, Choate.
You know, when I was an assistant, more so in the Patriot League, because obviously Choate's a top, it's a top five, you know, year in and year out. You can split hairs on whether it's Exeter or Andover or Deerfield or a couple others, but the bottom line is, you know, Choate and those other schools I just mentioned are some of the best schools in the world. And I come from a background where there's many ways to be successful. You know, I...
There's a lot of ways because I think I would not be myself here if I got too caught up in, you know, pitching rankings. Like I definitely think there's a lot of ways to be successful in life and become educated, etc, etc. So I'll just say that as a side, a side comment. However, if you're going to play in this world of, you know, pursuing a certain tier of boarding school or prep school, you know, Choate's among the best. I mean, it's top five every year.
When I was, as I was starting to say, when I was an assistant at Lafayette College, many times when I drove off Choate's campus, again, when I was a college coach, I used to say to myself, if I ever recalibrate my coaching career and pursue a prep school, this would be, to me, I think it's one of the best in the country. And I know it's easy for me to say that, and it's certainly biased, but in every school, every situation has their rewards.
The good, bad, the ugly, but I think for the most part between the school that Choate is, you know, just, you know, those rankings, but also what's behind it. You know, it's one of the bigger prep schools, you know, so if you're looking for a situation where, especially for post grads, if you don't want to, you know, go back to a smaller school environment or you want to feel like you're truly making that step from high school to college, you know, we have almost a thousand students. So that's one of the larger prep schools in America.
I think that's a neat compliment to also having being able to preserve, you know, the heightened academics and the student to teacher ratios. I mean, they're very small, Socratic type academic environments, you know, in the classroom, you know, it's very, it's intense. It's a really good school academically. But I say all that as a preface to say that, you know, one of the things that you hope for is that you can do, you can do the best of both and
Basketball wise, athletically, our department has been very much supported. I mean, we have multiple championships. I say this with a lot of humility, but you obviously said it's a plug for our school. I think it's a great situation for kids. I feel very fortunate to be the head coach at Choate, especially after seeing the other side of it as a Division I coach for nearly a decade. I think it's a good spot where the best way to sell something is to have a good product to sell.
And I think Choate between its top five academics every year, we were three this year in terms of national rankings. The support we've gotten for sports specifically basketball, I've been very fortunate to have won a couple of championships in my time at Choate, eight seasons minus COVID at Choate. And then the other thing I've really.
have taken an interest in and really admire about what we're doing is we walk the walk in terms of a lot of things that we're talking about in communities and society. I mean, you look at our student body and it's a very dynamic place. We have obviously geographical diversity, but we have socioeconomic, racial, you know, religion. It's just a very walk the walk dynamic community and place to work at and coach at. And certainly,
with coaching, the whole idea of coaching in a lot of ways and what might separate it a little bit from teaching or teaching a specific subject matter is, is guiding kids and getting kids understand at the end day, it's how you cross pollinate information to get to where you want to go, the decision you want to make, the performance you want to have. So it's awesome to see that bleed out of our program in the gym and be very much a part of what the Choate ethos is, you know, but simply put,
You know, obviously you're not getting that word in your first conversation with a family or kid. But simply put, you know, when you tell a family that, hey, this is going to be a top tier basketball experience, you know, I'm very fortunate, my staff, I have two assistant coaches that both played at a scholarship level. Both played Kemar Bailey, who was a scholarship division two player at University of New Haven. Excuse me, at New Haven was also a scholarship level quarterback. And then Katelyn Skinner.
who ironically enough I didn't know because I had moved on from the University of Hartford as associate coach, but had a nice career under Jen Rosati at the University of Hartford. And now as a math and science teacher at Choate and a part of our staff helps out with boys basketball. So I think we just have a very, it's a one, two punch. I mean, we had the best of both at Choate and then.
Obviously all that sounds cute if you don't say it's about players, it's about student athletes. If you don't have, you can have all that again, going back to framework. But if you don't get kids to see the value in a place that has the great academics, dynamic community, obviously a supportive basketball program, it won't matter. I mean, you need talent to see all that come to fruition, whether it's a student in the classroom, a kid that's open minded enough to interact with all different walks of life, or an athlete on the field, or in my case, point guard.
you know, wing, whatever, whatever I'm recruiting in that given, given cycle. But I feel very fortunate in terms of the plug that you're giving me the opportunity to make. And here's the other thing I'll say, Cory, I feel like a college coach now. Like I get a lot of, I get a lot of, you know, buddies of mine, colleagues of mine, you know, and a lot of them, there's a lot of chatter. You know, it's a noble profession, but it can be a little bit of a crappy business. You know, I'd probably use another word, but,
but it's a noble profession when done right. And there's a lot of good people in basketball, you know, and the motives and intent are in the right spot. But obviously, you know, talk about dynamics that the business is, it's an interesting business to say the least, right? And so you get a lot of people, you get that constant chatter about what's going on NIL, the impact of the transfer portal on teams, you know, we're putting teams together and not maintaining program, everything in between all the different stuff that coaches will water.
Cory Heitz (45:46)
Mm -hmm.
Drew Dawson (46:11)
you know, water cooler talk about and they'll inevitably ask about, you know, what's it like to coach prep school? And it's not to sound arrogant or anything like that, but it's a quick response. Like it's a great level to coach at. You know, I feel like a small college coach now, you know, obviously the recruiting goes into prep school, you know, the different things we've talked about for the last half hour or so. But, you know, one of the things that I highlight at the prep school level is.
the former coaches you coach against. And that's where I'm going with this, these comments here. It's like every game, not only do you have the influx of talent, because post pandemic, as you know, Cory, and I do think it's a smart thing. You know, I can't speak every kid's situation is a little different. But again, if you're in this world of looking into prep schools and you understand what it, you know, the good, bad, and the benefits of it, you know, in general, the benefits of it.
I think it is a good thing. I think it is very beneficial, you know, to give yourself another year to develop. Now I'm speaking more at the post -grad level, but obviously it showed we have reclasses. I know reclassification is a big thing in the prep school world. Also, we had success with kids coming in from multiple years. In fact, my starting back court are both kids that came in and reclassed, but that's a little bit more sensitive because that is definitely situational. I think some kids leave their high schools for the wrong reasons, right?
So that's a little bit of a different conversation. But I think, you know, just from selfishly from a coaching standpoint, I think I feel like a college coach now, you know, again, because of the recruiting, all the different things mentioned, but just the level of coaches, you know, the players, yes, right, because there's been this influx, especially post pandemic to give yourself another year of a platform for recruiting or getting better.
Cory Heitz (47:52)
Mm -hmm.
Drew Dawson (48:06)
But then the coaches that are coaching these players, they're all former college coaches. So I think it's been a great level for me, a great speed for me. You gotta wear different hats when you're at this level to continue to move your life forward professionally and financially. But it's been a nice ride. So I think Choate can be a wonderful spot for a lot of kids. It's not for everybody, but I think it can be a -
a great stepping stone or a great school situation for a lot of kids across the country, but we also recruit internationally.
Cory Heitz (48:44)
Love it. Love it. Thanks for sharing that. And we're going to play a fun game now called, I'm going to find out if you know who these alumni are from your school. Okay. Now the problem was.
Drew Dawson (48:48)
All right.
boy, there we go. I said to my wife too, I said, I know something's going to come. I just know Cory. So there's going to be some type of hot seat.
Cory Heitz (49:02)
There is a hot seat at the end. We'll do quick hitters. But this is, yeah, let me know if you know who these alumni are. OK? So it's a test of your school knowledge. A guy named John F. Kennedy.
Drew Dawson (49:07)
Okay. Yeah.
Let me see. Yes, of course. They have a great, great statue of him in the library and a nice display of him. And now, you know, he spent most of his time at Choate in the infirmary. So what's kind of funny about that is, yes, he's an alum and the head of schools. He struggled academically when he was at Choate and because he was sick most of the time. Right. And he spent most of the time in the wing of now what's our admissions building. But.
Back then it was the infirmary. And so he was struggling academically and the head of schools, that name, I don't remember who the head of schools was at the time, but literally wrote a raving recommendation for John F. Kennedy, knew his upside. You know, we're all coaches, right? Saw the upside in this young man and wrote a raving recommendation, got him into Harvard. Obviously his family was well connected and successful.
but went on to Harvard and the rest is history with his career, of course. But yeah, he's one of our, in fact, I appreciated that tweet a time ago. So John F. Kennedy.
Cory Heitz (50:24)
That was a gamey. Here's number two, Jamie Lee Curtis.
Drew Dawson (50:28)
Yes, Jamie Lee Curtis. In fact, Stephen Farrell. Well, first of all, I have an assistant, Stephen Farrell, who's worked, you know, when you're coaching at this, although our staff now is is really basketball heavy teachers and work other jobs around campus, but very basketball heavy. But I had an assistant for a long time, Stephen Farrell, who literally when he retired from Choate and stopped coaching with me, he was, you know, in his late 60s.
And so he's worked every level of, of Choate. And so he was the director of development, either that or the associate director of development. So he got to rub up against all these guys. In fact, he tells a story of when Ivanka Trump, who's another, you know, alum and regardless of what your politics are, it's, you know, but you're mentioning different people that came to Choate, you know, President Trump came in a helicopter and they weren't prepared for it.
And so just the circus of trying to figure out like, you know, and Steven, you know, coach Farrell tells a story like they're literally like holding down the poles of the tent as he's told it. No, I don't know. You know how it is. I caught a fish this big. It's like the stories evolve over time. But yeah, Ivanka Trump is another Harrison Ford's daughters, Bill Belichick's daughter, I believe coached at Choate. Before going on to Wesleyan, if I'm not mistaken, but Jamie Lee Curtis, that's a legendary one.
Cory Heitz (51:39)
Yeah.
Here's my last one. Jamie Lee Curtis. So those don't know, she was in Halloween, original Halloween, and she won an Oscar recently for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. So, Jamie Lee Curtis. And last one here, which a lot of people may or may not know, but Bill Simmons.
Drew Dawson (52:10)
Bill Simmons, one of the great, has his podcast, you'll have to fill me in a little bit with Bill Simmons. I mean, obviously I had Bill Simmons in terms of his overall career, but didn't he have one of the number one, speaking of podcasts for the longest time?
Cory Heitz (52:27)
I think it's right below this one, but yeah, I think it's right up there. he adds probably eight more zeros behind his than mine, but...
Drew Dawson (52:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, right. But he was one of the pioneers of was in the whole podcasting.
Cory Heitz (52:40)
Yeah, he's got a whole enterprise of different media models now. Created 30 for 30, has the podcast, has the articles. Yeah, so anyway, just another Choate alum. So it's not always that heavy hitting when we do these with certain coaches, Drew. So I had to really select between a who's who on your Wikipedia. In fact, it wasn't even part of the Wikipedia page. It was his own Wikipedia page, just talking about all the Choate alums.
Drew Dawson (52:54)
Yeah.
That's crazy. Well, can I tell you this? Just even on the, since I've been there, we've had great kids. It's amazing. Like you see some of these, the names and the people and what they're doing and, and, you know, and there's a curiosity about what kind of upbringing those kids have. But I've had great kids that have come from some really successful backgrounds. But, you know, Ethan Schlager, who went on to at play Colby is now in the Marine Corps as a, as a,
I don't know exactly the rank at this given moment, but has had a officer type career. His father, Ivan Schlager, who was John Kerry's chief campaign advisor, and was next in line to be chief of staff if elected. Just in the time I've been at, Tessitore's son, John Tessitore, Joe Tessitore, you probably know, did Monday Night Football for the longest time. I forget the game, what's the game now he's still involved with, but.
on ABC, but you know, a long time ESPN really got made in roads, excuse me, in roads with broadcasting, et cetera, with boxing. Murren's son who went on to Johns Hopkins and played for, you know, a buddy of mine in the business, Josh Leffler, who just took over Loyola. He was on some of Josh's, Leffler's early teams at Hopkins, but he was the chairman CEO of MGM Grand, which was huge, huge, you know,
business there and and and his wife was in line to to replace Harry Reid as as a senator in Nevada. So it's that's just in that's just in in you know the seven or eight years I've been at show. But yeah it's it's a it's a it's a who's who. And it's just it's a very dynamic place. And if it's if it's the right fit the right recruit.
and family, I think it's sky's the limit at a place like Choate. And I feel that way. Although I'm coaching, I get on a podcast like this and I'm pretty definitive and you're always trying to get better and your philosophy evolves and changes and what you do. But for the most part, I've had 15, 16 years behind my career at this point in coaching. And so there's a level of confidence there, but at the same time, you're always.
trying to get better. It's that whole thing of like put yourself in an environment where you can be pushed and you can learn from others. And I feel like, forget even the kids, I feel like where I'm at in my career, the people I've met through Choate, people I've rubbed up against, the people I've had conversations with, I mean, it's been a dynamic place for me, even beyond just selfishly speaking there. But yeah, it's a good spot, man. It's a good spot.
Cory Heitz (55:49)
All right, we're going to finish up with some quick hitters now. All right? Best player you ever played against.
Drew Dawson (55:51)
All right.
Best player I ever played against. The most embarrassing, can I give it to, can I, does it have to be one? The best, the most embarrassing best player, most embarrassing moment was against Donald Hand when I was a freshman. I went in against Virginia and he plucked me a half court in front of a lot of people. We were a guaranteed game, but it was a time where, you know, it's not pro sports right where.
Cory Heitz (56:03)
No, let's do two.
Drew Dawson (56:23)
Charlottesville is so that was like a wake up call. But the best person, the best player, because we also played him twice. You know, Hofstra was in the America East when I started out the University of New Hampshire. But Speedy Klaxton was unbelievable. I mean, he was just unbelievable, you know, and I played against a lot of good players. You know, I, Lynn Greer, you know, my AAU team, you know, was, you know, and I just was talking to Joe, Joe Crispin, who's an assistant, you know, I think one of the great coaches in basketball.
And certainly rooting, I'm from Pennsylvania, grew up a Penn State fan. A lot of my family went to Penn State, but Mike Rhodes is just a terrific, first of all, terrific human being, but a damn good basketball coach. And talk about how you do one thing is how you do everything. So I'm rooting for him, know him, big Penn State fan, but Joe Crispin was in the back court with me in AU. And guys move around AUs and different AU clubs, but we had a stretch.
Where's Joe Crispin and Matt Carroll? Where were the, you remember Matt Carroll in that career? He ended up having, you know, so then we had a kid, Mike of Davenport who went to start out. I don't know if he finished at McNeese State, Lloyd Price, who was, what was it? Tech school in, I can't remember in Delaware, the Wilmington area, Bo -Tech, I'm not sure.
Delaware vote, I can't think of that, but he ended up going to Xavier. So I've played with and against a lot of really good players, but in college going against Speedy Klaxton, cuz naturally, and I'm 5 '10", I was undersized point guard, but you see him, right? And on paper or whatever, on first sight, but man, he could play. And he was so quick and so -
He just could do things with the ball, just playmaking ability and his ability to finish. And I mean, he could get up and his athleticism and his point guard play. He was just really neat to follow when I was a young player, again, playing against him, but then just following him. And then obviously he's had a heck of a career at Hofstra and a neat full circle with that is, one of my kids is -
had played for him, Tyler Thomas just finished up at Hofstra. And I believe his mid major player of the year, but it's been neat to talk to Tyler with his NBA workouts. He played for Benny Farmer, who's a dear friend of mine at Williston Northampton. But he was a kid growing up that I'd worked with and had done some club basketball with and we're really rooting for Tyler to make the NBA. Certainly we'll go to Europe and have a heck of a career over there, but just neat full circle cause Speedy Claxton can
answer your question.
Clearly more than the one word answer, but he was the best guy when I was playing. But I played against a lot of, with and a lot of good players. So anyway, it's a beautiful game.
Cory Heitz (59:28)
All right. Beautiful game, that's for sure. How about the biggest win of your career as a college assistant, as a player, or as a prep school coach?
Drew Dawson (59:36)
Well, the prep school, I mean, the win New England's. I mean, you know, that's the thing. And you know this, Cory, it is so competitive. New England prep school basketball is just so competitive. There's so many, again, good coaches, so many good players that come into the NEP SAC, whether it's Triple A, Double A, Single A, all the way down. You know, sometimes the lower levels get discredited. But, you know, you look at Rivers, I mean, that's a heck of a program, you know, and he does a great job and just there's different programs at different levels. But in general,
It's just a hell of a competitive environment. So to win New England's and to win that was in 2018 was just huge. It was huge and it was only our second school history. In fact, I was told just in the last decade or so, there's only three schools that have won two or more and Choate's fortunate be a part of that. Exeter of course has been a gold standard.
They've won four at this point, I believe, four or five, I believe. But Choate's won two and Williston's won two. So that was a huge win, a huge one to win New England's. Another one would be trying to think in, I think it's when we beat Colgate as a player. I'd go back to player, it doesn't seem like on paper if you're looking at, it doesn't seem like a huge win. But again, I had an -
up and down college career for a lot of things, reasons and things we talked about, why you get into coaching and a lot of coaching also, I think is trying to get kids not to make the mistakes you made, right? And try to just put them on a little bit better path and few percentage points, you know, further along. But when my career come full circle at Lafayette, my senior year, we were total underdogs. We, you know, don't quote him, but we had some injuries and kid or two left. And it was just a
It wasn't like a prototypical Frano -Halland team during that era, that timeframe. It was my senior year and role player back up point guard backing up a hell of a player in the Andrew Plek who went on to have a great career in Sweden is now involved pretty heavily with Swedish basketball. But we had no shot to advance in a Patriot League tournament and we had an upset over Colgate in the first round and we ended up losing the semis.
But that was just, I remember that win, like knowing everyone counted us out. People were starting to talk about the spring and spring break and things like that. And for us to play that, I was fortunate, I had a pretty good game that night. And so that just sticks out. I mean, obviously the Lafayette -Lehigh games were great. That rivalry is awesome. And in high school, what was the other one? Did you play or coach? Talk about.
Cory Heitz (1:02:29)
Yeah, player in college and as a coach at prep school or college. So.
Drew Dawson (1:02:33)
Yeah, well, that was as a player and as a coach in college. And we had some good wins, but.
I'll tell you the best one was when we beat UMass on the 100th anniversary of college basketball. That was an awesome win up in Springfield. But you know how it is, if you're in this long enough and you're around the right people, it's the whole saying it takes a village if you can put yourself in a position to be surrounded by good people and learn something from them and be a sponge and good things will happen.
Fran O 'Hanlon, this is, and anybody that knows Coach O 'Hanlon or has played for him, and certainly I had the opportunity to coach under him. He's a mentor of mine. Coach Dumpf, he's sort of out of that philly tree in some ways. But he used to say, bloom where you're planted. And you get enough people blooming where they're planted and good things happen. So, and great experiences and lifelong memories. So, basketball, as you know, Cory, we share this.
Basketball has just been a, we talk about how connected the world is. It's amazing just the one degree of separation of basketball.
Cory Heitz (1:03:49)
Yeah, absolutely. Last one, what's your favorite movie?
Drew Dawson (1:03:54)
My favorite movie. You know, it's just funny. I was wondering if I could show my kids Space Balls yet, but my kid's only four years old. It's a little too young. But the Schwartz, will the Schwartz be with you? What'd you say? Yeah, yeah. Probably a little too early. My wife will kill me. Yeah. Love. I mean, there's Shawshank Redemption is a good one, but I feel like that might be a cliche answer. But a great movie. Yeah, I mean, I.
Cory Heitz (1:04:02)
We just showed our six and three on ET and that was pushing it. So ET was a little rough.
Drew Dawson (1:04:20)
A lot of them, a lot of them. I love documentaries, Cory, big into documentaries. So my wife can watch Park and Rec on repeat over and over what she does or the office or anything else. I'm good for like one take on it. And then it's like the next thing, you know, but we actually we both like documentaries. I just saw Hacking the Gut speaking of all this, you know, self help and
Cory Heitz (1:04:26)
Mm -hmm.
Drew Dawson (1:04:48)
you know, health hacks and different things that you and I have talked about on this call. Really interesting, just the added research that's coming down the pipe on, you know, how much influence, you know, on your emotional state, your mind, the GI tract has, you know, just how interconnected your gut is. And we know that, right? Like, it doesn't matter if you're into this type of...
thing or not, if you don't research this or look into this or not. We know obviously trash in trash out and the food we eat is very important. But to watch this documentary that night, just how crazy connected on your mood and your mind, and your mentality, emotional state the gut is and has was pretty remarkable to me. So for what it's worth.
Cory Heitz (1:05:43)
It's important stuff. Yeah. Where can people find you online or if they want to get in touch with you or learn more about Choate.
Drew Dawson (1:05:50)
Well, obviously, the Choate, I think Choate has a great website, you know, I think they've done a good job with that. In fact, I just our Assistant AD said they're going to upgrade it again, which is I thought it's pretty good to begin with, but that will be exciting to see. It looks like they're going to put more bells and whistles. So I only say that just from a recruiting standpoint, I think that would be a nice platform for families and recruits to go to.
They can find, they can email me. I have no problems giving my email here, adawson @ Choate .edu. Our social media is @ Choate Hoops and that's Twitter and Instagram. I think, you know, we have some of the kids help out with that. I think they do a pretty good job. You know, you can can there's always something more to do with digital content, but you can get a feel for our program there.
And yeah, I think that would be relative to what we're doing. And I've been fortunate in that, again, you wear different hats. I am involved in other areas of basketball. But I think for this, I would love for folks to take a hard look at Choate so you can find me and us there. So.
Cory Heitz (1:06:55)
Love it. Well, Drew, thanks so much for coming on the podcast and excited to follow your progress to the future and just keep our friendship going.
Drew Dawson (1:07:02)
That sounds good, man. Thanks for having me, Cory.
Cory Heitz (1:07:05)
My pleasure. If you guys enjoyed this, please tune in on our podcasting platforms on Spotify, Apple, all the other main ones. Go ahead and subscribe so you don't miss one. Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can see the bonus content as well as the full -form podcasts. And be sure to go to prepathetics .com if you want to learn more about the prep school world or have any questions, you can find out how to reach out to me there. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Thanks so much.