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What if youth sports weren’t just about wins and losses, but about building resilient, confident young people?

In this special episode, Mariel sits down with Bill Loewen of the Chilliwack Giants to talk about why March 5th is about far more than football.

The Chilliwack Giants have been developing youth athletes in the Fraser Valley for over 25 years, offering spring flag football for ages 5 and up, fall tackle programs, and a pathway that transitions athletes into high school programs. But for Bill, coaching is about much more than the game.

Bill shares openly about his own journey from being a talented but “lazy” high school player whose career was cut short by injury, to learning that talent only takes you so far. Work ethic, mindset, resilience, and controllables (effort, attitude, self-talk, preparation, focus) are what truly shape long-term success.

That’s exactly why the “Building Resilience On & Off the Field” event was created.

🗓 March 5th
📍 Chilliwack Cultural Centre
🎟 Free event (tickets required)

This powerful evening will feature:

• Short, impactful talks
• Fireside-style discussion
• Live Q&A with youth athletes
• A free copy of Angus Reid’s book Teenager: A Story About Finding Your Way for every attending athlete

Whether your athlete plays football, hockey, baseball, volleyball, or any other sport, the lessons are transferable.

If you’re in Chilliwack or the Fraser Valley, this is a night worth showing up for.

Reserve your free tickets here!

About Bill

Bill Loewen is passionate about football, mentorship, and building strong community connections. For the past three years, he’s dedicated countless hours to coaching both flag and tackle football with the Chilliwack Giants, where he now proudly serves as Second Vice President. Bill believes that sports are about more than just winning—they’re about teaching resilience, teamwork, and confidence that carry young athletes through every part of life.

Off the field, Bill works as a Project Manager, balancing his professional life with his favorite role: husband and dad. Together with his wife, Ashley, they are raising three incredibly active kids—Ella, a softball superstar, and two football-loving boys, Colby (11) and Josh (8), who share his passion for the game. Whether he’s drawing up plays or cheering from the sidelines, Bill’s greatest joy comes from watching kids grow—not just as athletes, but as people.

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“Being hard on yourself” is worn like a badge of honour in youth sports, but what if it’s actually hurting performance?

In this episode, Mariel Anderson and Jordan Owens unpack a powerful and often misunderstood topic for sports parents... especially hockey parents:

The difference between healthy self-reflection… and destructive self-talk.

Inspired by a conversation around Olympic coach Shawnee Harle’s “unpopular opinion,” they explore why many parents and coaches mistakenly praise athletes for being overly hard on themselves and how that can spiral into what they call the Doom Loop.

Inside this episode, you’ll learn:

• The difference between constructive self-evaluation and confidence-killing self-criticism
• What the “Doom Loop” is and how it impacts the body physiologically
• Why negative self-talk tightens muscles, speeds up the heart, and destroys clear decision-making
• How to help young athletes call a timeout on spiraling thoughts
• The powerful 5-step Neutralizer technique to reset the nervous system mid-game
• How deliberate breathing (and a simple tongue placement trick) restores control
• Why nervous and excited feel the same in the body and how to reframe it
• How parents can validate emotions without reinforcing mental spirals

If your athlete:
✔️ Gets stuck in their head
✔️ Beats themselves up after mistakes
✔️ Struggles with nerves before games
✔️ Loses joy because of pressure

This episode gives you practical tools you can teach immediately even before tonight’s tryout.

Join our free 'Forged Youth' Skool group for more parent support!

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What if the most important part of practice isn’t the drill…
but the first 10 minutes?

In this episode, Mariel sits down with Rett Larson, an elite international strength and conditioning coach and the creator of the No Zombies training philosophy.

Together, they challenge one of the most unquestioned traditions in youth and high-performance sport: the way athletes warm up.

Rett shares why traditional warm-ups often create boredom, disengagement, and burnout, and how replacing mindless repetition with creativity, competition, and problem-solving can dramatically improve both performance and joy.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why traditional warm-ups are a missed opportunity for athlete development
• How warm-ups can build speed, coordination, adaptability, and resilience
• Why fun and high performance are not opposites, they work together
• How exposing athletes to failure on purpose builds confidence and bounce-back ability
• The difference between necessary repetition and mindless repetition
• How gamification and unpredictability increase effort and buy-in
• Why practices that look “messy” often produce better long-term athletes
• How parents and coaches can protect an athlete’s love for the game

This episode is a must-listen for:
✔️ Coaches who want better energy, effort, and engagement
✔️ Parents concerned about burnout and loss of joy
✔️ Athletes who feel bored, over-coached, or mentally drained by training

Warm-ups aren’t just preparation for practice. They’re preparation for how athletes think, move, compete, and respond to adversity.

About Rett:

Rett Larson is in his 5th year as the strength coach for the German Women’s Volleyball Team. Before his time in Germany, he spent seven years in China, first as Project Manager for EXOS-China, working with several Chinese Olympic teams in their preparation for the 2012 London Games, and later with the Chinese National Women’s Volleyball Team, which won both the 2015 World Cup and Gold at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Following the Olympic gold medal, Rett worked for two years as the strength coach for the Netherlands Women’s Volleyball Team before joining Team Germany. Prior to his international work, Rett spent 10 years with Velocity Sports Performance, where he became the Director of Coaching at their headquarters in California.

Rett is the creator of the No Zombies training philosophy, which strives to make training more stimulating, engaging, and developmentally beneficial for athletes.

Join our free 'Forged Youth' Skool group for more parent support!

Check out Rett's NoZombies Warm-up Video Library

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