Dr. Andy Galpin

The other thing interesting about Bill is he was actually one of my first mentors.

When I was an undergraduate student, Bill was the head strength conditioning coach at the University of Washington.

I'm from that area.

And so I was fortunate enough to beg Bill to let me come up and shadow him one day.

And he said, fine, you can do that, but I'm training.

And so I showed up there probably 30 minutes late, was beyond embarrassed.

I thought, don't even go in, go home.

This is so ridiculous that you showed up this late for a guy like that.

He was the kindest, sweetest guy ever, put in his mouthpiece, had his training logs out there, and proceeded to do one of the most impressive training sessions I've ever seen while giving me guidance of being a strength conditioning coach.

I'll also never forget, Bill looked at me.

Now in context, you can imagine what Bill looks like at the time.

myself, I'm five foot eight, probably 180 pounds at the time, college football player, but still incredibly small compared to him.

And I will never forget the words he said to me.

It made a huge impact on my life.

I asked him about being a collegiate strength conditioning coach, as I thought this is what I want to do with my life.

And he looked at me straightly and directly and said, you're a dime a dozen.

You don't matter.

And he didn't say it with hate or hurt at all.

It was the kindest, most direct and helpful thing I've ever heard.

It changed the trajectory of my life.