Paul Thomas, the head coach of women’s basketball at Saint Mary’s College sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 Feet podcast and gives us insight into his journey as a basketball coach. During our interview, Paul tells us about his favorite travel experiences including many visits to Australia, how he became a basketball coach, and dives into the commitment level of college athletes!

In this episode, we discuss:

• How this past season went for Saint Mary's College Women's Basketball team (0:30)

• How Coach Thomas got into coaching (4:01)

• Paul’s favorite travel experience (10:10)

• One thing that no one knows about Paul (14:29)

• Paul’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (15:49)

• Paul’s next adventure (19:32)

Saint Mary’s 2019-2020 Women’s Basketball Season

Shianne: So you're just about to wrap up your 14th season at St. Mary's. Can you kind of tell us how your seasons going and the highs and the lows?

Paul Thomas: Well, there's been many highs and many lows this year. First of all, the season is not going, I guess as expectations would have it. For the last decade or more, we've been in the top two or three in the West Coast Conference. And this year we have not met those expectations. So anytime you're not in that top two or three, then you're considered struggling. We have a losing record and that's difficult to deal with, once again just because of the standards that we have here and the standards that we put on our student athletes. And really the standards that they put on themselves, are to win and to win on a consistent basis. Now with that being said, our highs this year, we beat Gonzaga at home when they only had one... Their only loss was a loss to Stanford in overtime. And they were currently ranked, I think 10 or 11, somewhere in there. And so the "media" and people said that was our biggest win. And one of my biggest wins as the coach of Saint Mary's College. I did not feel that way, but just on paper and they're high ranking, et cetera, that was a pretty big win. Another high this year was this particular team, I reached 500 wins as a head coach. And so this team was part of that. So that was a really cool thing to share.

Shianne: Wow, congrats.

Paul Thomas: Yeah, thank you. So it was just a cool thing to share that with this particular team. We've struggled a little bit. We've lost some close games. The ball hasn't bounced our way on numerous occasions. And so when we stack some of those things up, it can snowball.

But with all that being said, we had an awesome practice yesterday as we prepare for our game on Saturday, tomorrow. And those are the highs.

Each day is different, which is one of the reasons I love what I do is because each day brings something new and something different. A different challenge... You just have a different perspective each and every day.

We're certainly in the mode. Having ended the conference tournament, all 10 teams in our league. Everybody's got a chance, everybody says we're zero and zero, all the coach speak. So we'll be using all that as well and anything can happen. We can shoot the ball pretty well and most of the time we do. But if we can really get on a roll and one of the reasons we beat Gonzaga, it's because we made 14 three pointers, I think we were 14 for 21 so we're very capable of doing that. And so if you can kind of catch that on a one game basis and do that to two or three days in a row, you're going to find yourself in championship games. We have a ton of the season yet.

How Coach Thomas Started Coaching Basketball

Shianne: Well, good luck with that. How did you get into coaching?

Paul Thomas: Long time ago. Long, long time ago. I believe this is year 36, 37, so I've been doing it. You don't say years anymore, I say decades. I started thinking about coaching when I was a junior in high school. And I knew I wanted to coach basketball and I'll try and make a long story short. Back in the day, I played football, basketball, and baseball. So you played baseball in the spring and summer, and then you played football in the fall, and you played basketball in the winter. At least that's what I did. My junior year, I broke my collarbone basically, the first game of the season in football. So I mean it's a six to eight-week recovery.

And so I kind of fell in love with the game. One of the football coaches was also the head basketball coach, right? As I'm recovering from my broken collarbone, I just spent a lot of time with him and talking about basketball and I just kind of fell in love with the game, and that's kind of how it all started. I also at that time, once again, way back when and way back in Nebraska, I had a shop class. One of the projects was we had to make like a sheet metal toolbox time capsule thing, I'll call it a toolbox.

And so in that, I wrote that I was one of the coach basketball and then I was going to win a national championship. And so I put it in there, locked it up. Several, several, several years later, I had the opportunity to do that when I was the head coach at Cal Poly Pomona and so that's a pretty cool thing.

So the game has treated me very well. You learn a lot, you learn every day is what you really do.

Just the people you're around, the student-athletes that changes. It's funny how generations, I've had generations of players. Each year when we travel to Spokane, one of my former players is living up there and she has dinner with us and comes to the game. And it's just kind of cool to talk about what happened 30 years ago.

And so those are the things and that's just kind of keeps you going. As I said, it's transitional. Your perspective each day can be changed. Your philosophy, like I don't think my philosophy on coaching has changed that much, but your perspective and your outlook because generations change. And with the technology and all these kids are smarter and the information is at their fingertips. And all you got to do is look down on their phone and they can find out anything. And so your perspective change a little bit.

Shianne: Yeah, I think that's awesome. Did you always know you wanted to coach girls' basketball or how did you get into that?

Paul Thomas: No, I did not. When I was in my third year, I went to Midland Lutheran College. I was in my third year of playing there, going into my third year and my old high school history teacher had called me and wanted to know if I knew anybody on the women's team at Midland that would be interested in coaching. And they would be the Head JV Coach, had a freshmen coach, an assistant varsity girls coach. And I thought about it and I said, "Oh, well this would be... I think I wanted to do this." So I went over there and interviewed and at the time it was 51 miles each way.

So I itchly commuted 102 miles. I got offered the job, I accepted the job, and I was commuting 102 miles basically, six days a week. Now that doesn't seem that horrible. But back then, and it was in Nebraska, so there's weather.

And all that going on during the middle of that basketball season. But I learned a lot. Joan Regliczek was the first person that I worked with. She was the Head Girls Coach then and she taught me a lot. And I just didn't want to coach guys after that. I had never really had a desire to coach guys, just never have. I helped when I was at Wayne State College as an assistant. I unofficially helped Steve Aggers in the men's program there. I just didn't have the desire. Okay, I'm going to make the switch. I'm going to make the switch over to men. I just didn't want to do that.

Coach Thomas’s Favorite Travel Experience

Shianne:We are a travel company. So always I'd like to ask this question, but what are some of your favorite travel experiences? Whether it was just traveling with the team, because obviously you guys travel a lot or personal travel. If you could share some of your favorite memories.

Paul Thomas: You bet. Well, I think I've been at St Mary's, I've probably have been to Australia, oh 15, 16, 17 times.

Shianne: Wow, you guys always take your tours there? Is that where you guys go?

Paul Thomas: No, we have not taken a tour there yet. We eventually will. So I travel there for recruiting.

And everybody says the same thing, they all, "Wow, that's great that you get to travel to Australia." Most of the time, in fact, you're traveling there and you're recruiting, so it's a business trip.

But because of days off between when you're watching games or doing things, you get to do a couple of things. So I've been to Brisbane, and Canberra, and Sydney, and Melbourne. So you get to take a little bit of time to kind of soak up the culture. And we have now former players there. So they get to show you around a little bit. I've been to New Zealand, which was fun. I most recently probably... Last July, my wife and at the time she wasn't even one, one year old daughter, we flew to Bangkok and got to travel over there. And once again it was work-related, but we got to go to Bangkok and experience that, which was extremely unique.

I'm not quite sure Bangkok is a place I would return, but I'm glad I got to go and to experience that. This past year with the team, we took our team... We try and go on a trip every year. So this year our team trip, we played at the University of Kansas. And then we kept going east and we basically went to Orlando and played in the University of Central Florida Tournament. So we got to play in the historic Phog Allen Fieldhouse. And then we kept going and we spent a day in Disneyland. We spent a day on the Glades, and on the airboats, and rent the airboats. So it's always cool when you get to travel with the team because a lot of the times they haven't been to many of these places.

And sharing experiences with them is a pretty cool thing. So we've gone to Boston, we've done New York City, we've done Virginia, and we got to go to DC, we've gone to Texas. So the travel part of it is enjoyable, but it's also moving 20 plus people around and keeping 20 plus people on a schedule. And keeping them moving all in the same direction is one of the things I love about my job. But traveling has its challenges as well. And especially since we have international kids. I mean, you got to get kids to get their passport, that's a whole different ballgame.

Shianne: Totally, yeah. Seems like you've always been able to have some really cool experiences that you used to do. Kind of work, but also you get to travel as you go to those places.

Paul Thomas: And then my wife and I, we traveled. I enjoy Mexico, so we try and go to Mexico every year. As I said, I've been to Paris. I mean, just very fortunate that I get to move around a little bit.

Shianne: Yeah, that's awesome.

Paul Thomas: It is. And I have four kids and so we take our four kids, we've taken them down to Southern California at times. And we've taken them to different places in California, which I think is an incredible state in itself, so getting to do many things with them as well.

Shianne: Yeah, how cool. Well, thanks for sharing those experiences.

A Lesser-Known Fact About Coach Thomas

Shianne: This question is going to put you on the spot a little bit. But what is one thing that no one knows about you that you can share with us?

Paul Thomas: There's probably lots of things but one that I would probably share, if I didn't coach and wasn't a basketball coach, I would probably be a long haul truck driver. That's probably something that not a lot of people know about me.

Shianne: Really, why would you want to do that?

Paul Thomas: Because you're going to see the country, you get to kind of in... Obviously, I'd want to take my wife and my youngest, the baby with us. But you're on your own time, you get to go at your own pace. So you gather the best of a lot of worlds there. You get to... The only thing I probably would not like about it is, if I love to cook and so you're not probably cooking a whole lot of meals in an 18 wheel tractor-trailer. So that's probably one thing. And then the cooking thing. I think a lot of people know that I enjoy cooking, so it probably wouldn't be too much a big surprise.

Shianne: Well I think that what you just shared is kind of a surprise. A lot of people probably wouldn't know that about you, so.

Coach Thomas’s Advice to Collegiate Athletes

Shianne: One question I also like to ask is, if you're an athlete wanting to play collegiate sports, what would your advice be to them?

Paul Thomas: Well, if you want to play collegiate sports, I don't think it matters what sport you want to play. I think one of the biggest things is, you have to understand the commitment level. It's a fun job, but make no mistake about it. There are job things about it.

And meaning you're on my schedule. You don't get to go train whenever you want. You have to practice when I say when our practice slot is. So I think that's a big part of it. Now I'm talking about a team sport here, but I think that's a big part of it, that there's a function of, you're on somebody else's time. You're going to have to put in some physical effort. It's going to be hard, there's just like fixed season. There are ups and downs and being in college, you're more of a business. It just really is.

I have one purpose here and that's my job is to head women's basketball coaches to be successful. And successful are the coaches winning. And so it's my job to try and put the very best people out on the floor at the right time. And when you have 12, 13, 14, 15 people, everybody's not going to play the same amount of time. So you're going to go through those ups and downs as well.

You're going to play really well and not get as much game time. And you're going to play really well, you get a lot of game time and everything in between. But from my perspective, that's probably one of the things I enjoy the most, is trying to get a group of people to believe and get on the same page. And we call it this year we've said one voice, to have one voice. That's one of the favorite things about my job, it's trying to get a group of people to do that.

Shianne: Yeah, I like that. I liked that you said it's a commitment level that people need to be aware of because you're right, as an athlete playing, you are on somebody else's schedule, you're working for them basically. I mean not technically working, but it is like a job like you said.

Paul Thomas: Yeah, and then the other part of it is, it's supposed to be fun and we talk about how fun it is playing sports. However, we all know losing is not fun.

And especially, and I don't want to... Losing at the division three level or junior college level or NAA level is the same as losing it the highest division one level. But we're all trying to win. We're in a competitive environment and you get to see some tears once in a while.

Seen more tears this year than I have in the years past, but you learn from it and hopefully, as time goes on, you get better. And I think that's once again, one of the reasons I enjoy what I do because every day you're going to do something to improve, something to get better, and your student-athletes probably are showing you the way somehow.

The Next Adventure for Coach Thomas

Shianne: Just to kind of wrap it up, I know you guys are still kind of towards the end of your season, but what are you most excited about as you're wrapping up your season? Or what's your next adventure? What's next?

Paul Thomas: Well, our next adventure is tomorrow when we go over to Stockton to play the University of the Pacific. So that's our next adventure. And then we end up with next weekend, we have two home games. So we have senior night. We have four seniors, and so that's always difficult. As I talked about before, their generation is coming into a close and so that's coming up in the next couple of weeks. And then we're on to Vegas for the West Coast Conference Tournament.

And then May is a little bit of downtime. May is when we head to Mexico and we do a little bit of recruiting. And then April's a little bit of recruiting and then summer camps. And July recruiting, so.

Shianne: You have a lot coming up. A lot of adventures.

Paul Thomas: Yeah, it all changes but it all stays the same, that's for sure.

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