Sep 18 2024 41 mins
In this episode, I sat down with Kip Ioane, whose journey from Polynesian kid in Montana to college athlete and coach offers a fascinating lens on masculinity, sports culture, and fatherhood. Kip's story is a potent mix of cultural contrasts, high expectations, and the weight of family legacy. We dove into the complexities of father-son relationships, exploring how a single moment of vulnerability transformed their dynamic. Kip's candid reflections on using humor as a shield and "exploiting others' pain" struck a chord, highlighting the often unspoken insecurities young men face. But it's his evolution – from pressure-cooker athlete to thoughtful father – that really got me thinking. Kip's insights on redefining success for the next generation and the importance of letting kids find their own path in sports left me pondering: How can we foster resilience and ambition in our youth without sacrificing emotional well-being? It's a balancing act we're all still learning to master.
Bio:
Kip Ioane ("eye-own") is the founder and lead facilitator of #TeamsOfMen, an organization that exists to empower coaches of male athletes to enlighten their players to the potential of a reimagined manhood. Based on his own work over a 22 year career as a basketball coach at the NCAA D3 level, TeamsOfMen provides players and coaches with in person workshops, course curriculum, discussion prompts, and conversation prompts to engage men in breaking free from the manbox, embracing emotional fluency and preventing gender violence and oppression. Working with middle school through collegiate level teams (mainly in football and basketball), Kip's vision is a new normal of all coaches prepping male athletes to take their platform of influence with the toolkits needed to spread positive masculinity to the next generation of young men.