How a Trailblazing Coach Made History

Buddhability

SGI-USA

Health & Fitness, Self-help, Self-care, Religion & Spirituality, Mental Health, Buddhism

4.9 • 603 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does a student athlete and mother become a superstar coach to students and even Olympians? Karen Dennis, of Columbus, Ohio, shares how her Buddhist practice led to a decorated coaching career.

At the time of her retirement from Ohio State as the director of both Track and Field teams, she won the most Big Ten titles of any woman in Ohio State history. Prior, she coached teams at University of Nevada Las Vegas, Michigan State and the National Women’s 2000 Olympic Team. She has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for three prestigious organizations and voted coach of the year by her peers 13 times. Today, we discuss what Buddhism has in common with mindset of winning athletes and coaches.

Watch this episode on our YouTube channel.

Resources

“The Hero of the World,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 835.

The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, p. 172

Transcript

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0:00.0	From SGI USA, I'm Cassidy Bradford and this is bootability.
0:06.0	The weekly series where I talk with Buddhists from all walks of life about the power we each have to change our lives and the world around us.
0:18.7	If you've ever been an athlete, you might not be surprised to hear that there are tons of parallels between sports and Buddhism.
0:27.2	I, however, have not played a team sport since I was maybe 10 years old.
0:31.7	So when I sat down with Karen Dennis of Ohio, I was inspired.
0:36.2	Karen became a trailblazing track and field coach who actually
0:39.9	had never intended on becoming a coach. Today we're talking about Karen's incredible career
0:45.3	and how her Buddhist practice informed her approach to coaching and to athletics. So whether
0:50.6	you're an athlete or not, her insights can really be applied to so many areas of our lives.
0:55.0	So I hope you enjoyed today's conversation.
1:03.0	Thank you so much, Karen, for joining the bootability podcast.
1:08.0	I've already heard some of your story, but I'm excited to kind of dig in more.
1:13.0	You have a very, like, interesting life story, a really impressive career. So let's just get into it.
1:21.3	We can start with you just introducing yourself. So maybe just tell me a little bit about who you are
1:26.1	and your life maybe before you started practicing Buddhism.
1:29.3	Okay. Hi, Cassidy. Thank you for having me. Hello, everybody, listening to Budability. I'm excited to do this. I'm honored to do this, really. My name is Karen Dennis. I've been practicing Buddhism for 52 years. I'm not going to say how old I am ever.
1:50.1	Before I started practicing in 74. And at the time, I was a student at Michigan State University. I had, I was a student at Michigan State University.
2:00.8	I had, I was a single parent, a mother of a really young child, a toddler, and I was struggling to complete my degree requirements.
2:16.9	Athletics had given me an opportunity to go to college,
2:22.2	and it was difficult with my daughter, but at the same time, she was always my why in terms of
2:30.2	why I wanted to improve my life. But it was hard because, you know, I had a really nice upbringing.
2:39.2	I had two, you know, two great parents.
	...

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