IMPACTFUL COACHING PROJECT
COMPETENCE. CARE. CONSTANT.
We help coaches build programs that last and develop the whole person.Good coaching isn't about willpower. It's about systems that keep competence and care constant, so the things coaches already believe in show up every day, not just in August.Our work is built on original research with 1,500+ college athletes from 70 programs.
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Content Hub
New writing every week on Substack and new episodes of the Beyond Coaching podcast, covering leadership, sport, and the parts of coaching nobody trained you for. Real conversations, research, and practical tools for coaches, educators, and leaders who care about more than wins and losses.ICP Daily is a short daily habit for coaches that makes the 3 C's something you do every day. Free on the App Store, full access $1.99/month.
About
The Impactful Coaching Project (ICP) helps coaches lead today's athletes through training, mentoring, and original research. Everything we do is built on the 3 C's: Competence, Care, and Constant. Most coaches can start all three. The hard part is keeping them going in February, after a losing streak, with a roster that changed on them. We help coaches and departments build the systems that make them last.Dr. Rob Ramseyer is the Co-Founder of the Impactful Coaching Project and Vice President of Athletics and Strategic Expansion at Friends University, overseeing 24 varsity sports and more than 700 student-athletes. A former college baseball coach, Rob was named NAIA/NACDA National Athletic Director of the Year and is a multiple-time KCAC Athletic Director of the Year. He is the author of two books and has conducted original multi-year research on athlete motivation. He lives in Wichita, KS, with his wife, Charlie, and their four children.Dustin Galyon is the Co-Founder of the Impactful Coaching Project. As head golf coach at Friends University, he led the Falcons to a KCAC championship and the best national finish in school history by any Friends team. He also coached college basketball. A nationally recognized speaker on leadership and motivation, Dustin has spoken to more than 2 million people and is the author of one book. He resides in Hesston, KS, with his wife, Marissa, and their two children.
Work With Us
We work with coaching staffs, athletic departments, and coaches conventions at the high school and college level. Every session runs on one idea, one commitment per coach, and one thing each head coach takes back to their assistants.Embracing Difficult Conversations. Five keys for the conversations coaches avoid. Every coach leaves with the conversation they've been putting off and a date to have it.Sustaining Success. What separates programs that stay good from programs that had a good run, built on original multi-year research on drift.Staff Culture Workshop. A working session on how your staff operates together, run as an open discussion or grounded in a pre-survey.Coach-Parent Training. Sessions for coaches on working with parents, and for parents on working with coaches.Survey and Analysis. An athlete motivation and teammate survey for coaches and athletes that shows where your staff's read on their athletes matches reality and where it doesn't.Tell us about your department, what's working, and what keeps slipping. We'll build a plan that fits your calendar.[email protected]
"The Impactful Coaching Project has been a transformative experience for both me and my team. We have incorporated several items into our program to help strengthen relationships with all team members and their families. We are already seeing the benefits in relationships, productivity and overall team cohesion."Nate Schmitt, Head Basketball Coach and Assistant AD, Wichita Collegiate School, 2026 State Champions"If you are a coach, athletic director, or staff looking for a return on investment in professional development, I highly recommend the Impactful Coaching Project. The content is practical, rooted in research, and ready for immediate implementation."Dr. Jesse Godding, Athletic Director, Nelson University
Emerging Coaches Fellowship
Founding class planned for 2027-28Young assistant coaches at small colleges are the least developed people on our staffs, and it's nobody's fault. Head coaches are recruiting, fundraising, driving vans, and handling compliance. Athletic directors are wearing multiple hats while trying to develop their head coaches. In most departments, nobody is planning how assistants develop.The ICP Emerging Coaches Fellowship is built to close that gap without adding to the load of head coaches or athletic directors.Who it's for. A small class of 12 to 15 assistant coaches in their first three years, in any sport, from Midwest NAIA schools. We keep it small on purpose so every fellow has room to talk and gets known over the year. We accept no more than three fellows from any one school.This is not a coaching clinic. Fellows won't learn a new press break, a better swing path, or a new defensive scheme. There are plenty of places to get that. This fellowship covers what clinics skip: how you develop people, the philosophy you coach from, and the systems that hold a program together when things get hard. Coaches rarely lose jobs over running the pick and roll wrong. They lose them over the environments they build. That's why a cross country assistant, a football assistant, and a volleyball assistant can sit in the same room and all get real value.How fellows are chosen. Athletic directors or head coaches nominate, up to three assistants per school. Each nominee then completes a short four-question form about why they want to do this and how they've handled getting something wrong. Answers go only to Rob and Dustin. Rob Ramseyer and Dustin Galyon select the class. The fellowship works best when every fellow chose to be there, so not every nominee is accepted.The year. Late July to early June: ten monthly 75-minute Zoom sessions over the lunch hour (exact time to be announced), two in-person days with time alongside athletic directors and successful head coaches from the region, and a June capstone. Every fellow receives Leading and Coaching the 21st Century Athlete, which is the curriculum for the year. The reading is light: one book, about 10 to 15 pages per session, so it fits alongside a full coaching load or a grad program.The leadership library. Fellows get access to a shared library that grows all year: session recordings, slides, short teaching videos, and articles. If you miss a session, it's there. A year from now, when you're rethinking your philosophy or building your own staff culture, it's still there.By June, every fellow will have a mentor outside their own program and one thing they changed because of it (Competence), at least two care systems running on a fixed rhythm (Care), and athletes who would describe them as the same person after a loss as after a win (Constant). Athletic directors receive a short summary of their fellow's year.Cost. $500 per fellow for the founding class, paid by the school. Fellows pay nothing. Partial scholarships are available. Includes both in-person days with meals, all ten sessions, the book, materials, and access to the leadership library. Travel and hotel are not included.Have an assistant in mind? Use the form below. Submit it once for each assistant, up to three per school. We'll send each nominee a few short questions.