The BroadCast: 1/11/2019 ~ Annelie Schmittel Discusses New Player Development Role

a small way, that's what I'm excited about. We'll talk about this new role and why today's world, what's happening off the court is sometimes just as important as what's happening on it. There's so much more than the season. There's so much more than the game. We really want to make sure that we support the players three hundred and sixty five days, twenty four hours a day, and that they have a support system that addresses the different

facets of their lives. Seventy six Ers vice President Player Development, Annelie schmiddle Our guests on this episode of the broadcast, How are you doing out there? Seventy six Ers pot people, Brian Seltzer saying hello, things are relatively good in Sixers Land right now. No. Wednesday's game against the Washington Wizards did not go the team's way, but prior to that, squad had rattled off four straight victories to start the

brand new calendar year in twenty nineteen. We've got some really strong All Star bids being made by Joel Embiid, who as of the second round of fan voting was number three among all Eastern Conference front court players that at this point in time would be good enough to get him a starting nod. Ben Simmons Jimmy Butler also performing well in the fan voting, which will continue through January twenty first. So if you have not yet cast your ballots today when you're listening, you can do it

one today good NBA dot com slash vote. You can google seventy six ers or google any one of those three players names and cast your ballots in favor of the seventy Sixers All Star candidates. Really looking forward to hearing from Annalie Schmiddle on this episode of the podcast. She was announced as the Sixers Vice President of Player Development,

a brand new position in the front office. On the basketball operations side on Monday, January seventh, so we'll learn some more about her, her very interesting and distinct background, and how she plans on bringing a variety of different facets of the player experience and seventy Sixers organization together. I think you'll find out that it is something that from a logistical and holistic standpoint, that has a lot

of value and a lot of benefits. Reminder that before we get started to please subscribe to our podcast feed if you have not yet done so. We're on Apple Pods, SoundCloud, Google Play, Stitcher, Pocketcast, tune in just about all your favorite podcasting platforms. Just type in Sixers Podcast Network. That will take you to our pages and sign up right

then and there. Right as the seventy Sixers were passing the midway point, crazy that we're even talking about that of this current season, an important announcement was made that the team is going to be bringing on a new vice president of player development, in fact, the organization's first vice president of player development, and that is Annalye Schmiddle.

Her position sounded really cool on paper when the press release came out, but wanted to hear straight from the source what this new role with the Sixers is going to entail. So here's our conversation. It is great to have the opportunity to sit down with the seventy sixers new vice president of player Development, Annalye Schmiddle. Annalye, first of all, welcome to the seventy Sixers. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. So there's a lot

to unpack. The position sounds really fascinating and compelling, but I think it's really intriguing that you're joining the organization. Literally at the midway point of the regular season, the team finished forty one games, your hiring was announced, So I just love to hear what your thoughts are right now, your excitement level about coming in at this stage of your career, and also the evolution of the organization. I mean, this is obviously a great opportunity to join this organization

comes at a great time. It comes at a really busy time, so to transition into the job is certainly hit the ground running mentality, which is awesome. You know, it's exciting. I was really ready to be in Philadelphia. I've known for a couple of weeks now that we were moving out here, and then just finishing the season with the Oakland Raiders and then coming out here and joining the organization to do this job. It's been nothing short of exciting. To be honest, it almost seems like

you hit the ground sprinting, not hit the ground running. Like, tell me about this what you we were saying that you landed in Philadelphia on Saturday and then went to the game against the Dallas Mavericks that night. Yes, so on Saturday, I think our plane arrived at four pm. We left six am California time, and then landed four pm Eastern time, and dropped off our bags real quick, hopped back into a car and went straight to the

arena to catch the game that night. And then Sunday kind of worked out my jet lag, and Monday morning right and early arrived at the training facility and have been going strong ever since. So there seems like there are multiple layers to what you're going to be doing with the seventy six ers. Why don't I start with that and I'll hear from you how you describe your position, what you're going to be overseeing and responsible for. I guess the follow to that is, like how do you

just jump in? But let's start first with hearing what you're going to be overseeing and doing for the case. So the VP of Player Development role really boils down to the sixer wanting to continue to be at the forefront of having the best experience for the players and their families and the staff in the NBA. That's really what it boiled down to. And so my role was to create this synergy between all the departments that the

organization already had. So if you think of them as individual components, the pieces of the puzzle that we're doing, really really, really great work, and there needed to be some synergy between them because each individually have such a high level of expertise and the way they work with the players is really unique and they influence their development both on and off the court so much. So now this role just kind of oversees how we can create

a closer connection between those two between those departments. So, what are some of these departments? Yeah, absolutely, so it's obviously the on and off court development of the players. That is probably the easiest way to put that in.

There's a lot of layers within that, right, but our goal is really to provide opportunities for the players that they can maximize their growth both on and off the court, and well beyond their career, whether it's you know, them transitioning out of the NBA or any other retirement that they might have. So that's really what we're here to do, is create this experience for them and surround them with the best network of support that we can possibly give them.

I gotta think right now, it's got to be a lot about introducing yourself to people, getting to know people. How are you approaching that aspect? Yeah, you know, it's

been really great. This organization is known for hiring really high caliber people, and it was one of the reasons why I was so excited about the opportunity to join the Sixers is just looking at how the staff is composed, and certainly everybody sees the en court personalities, right, and you're excited about them because they are just amazing athletes and coaches great and obviously having Alton Brand as the

GM is amazing. But when you're looking at it at a deeper level and you're seeing the types of people that the organization has brought in over the years, that's truly amazing. So for me to get to walk into the building every day and meet new people and get to know their background and their story and how they're helping shape this process. That's been probably the most exciting part.

It's a lot of new faces, a lot of names to learn, but it's that's a really exciting part from me right now, just getting acclimated with everybody and their experience and their expertise. It's interesting that you bring that up because haven't been around here for a while. You know, this team went through some seasons where it was growing and trying to figure things out, and certainly there's been

this big jump over the last couple of years. And I got to think, doing what you were doing for an NFL team, there's only thirty two of those, and the NFL is the NFL, and it was really distinct position. There had to be, I would assume, and tell me if I'm wrong, some sort of reputation in the sports industry that the Sixers were a team and a franchise on the rise compared to what it might have been

four or five years ago. Just how aware are people working in sports of opportunities in front office work and what the Sixers are doing there. What type of reputation has the franchise built up in that respect, I mean certainly.

I think when you work in any professional sports environment, or even in any sports environment period at the collegiate level or elsewhere, you're always looking for the places that are doing well and that are just innovative by nature, right, Like one thing is the winds and the losses, but the other thing is what else are they building, who are they bringing in, and how do they go about

their business? And so one thing with the Sixers, even as somebody that worked in the NFL, they always came up as being the super innovative organization, and then you would see the types of people like I said that they have hired, and then how that translated to the on court success. So you're looking for those places certainly because you want to know, all right, what are they doing, how are they doing it, how are they going about it, and is it something that you can adapt best practices

from in your role. Whether you're in the NFL, whether you're in the NHL, you're at the collegiate level, You're always looking for places that can give you insights and how to do it better. Regardless of what was happening on the court with this team. Going back to the beginning, of Brett Brown's time here, it always seemed like there was an emphasis on doing things the right way, establishing

a culture in a set of tenets to follow. How much from your experience, whether it's been at the professional level with the Raiders, your work in the NC double, as a student athlete yourself, have you found that to be a steadying level factor that if you're doing things the right way, that can ultimately pave the way to greater things to come. Oh, certainly culture is everything, right. I don't think that is just true in sports. I

think that is true in business as well. But when you're in an environment where people allow you to grow and that has a culture of being open and having open channels of communication and trust and where relationships are really important, that's when things when the magic happens in a lot of ways, right, And so we're fortunate that we're an environment where when the magic happened it results

in wins. But certainly that culture is everything, and I'm so glad to be a part of this and to help continue grow that culture and an environment of growth. That's really important to me, and that seems to be important for not only the coach, but also Elton and the rest of the leadership team, and it trickles down to every single person that I've encountered. So for that kind of brings us the core of your role in

your position here. Now, well, why do you think in this day and age, first week of twenty nineteen, this type of position is important, particularly in respect to professional athletes, what you're going to be doing making sure that all aspects of their life are taken care of and overseen

and looked out for. Yeah, I think when you're looking at sports and you're considering athletes, all you really often see and you are aware of on the outside is when they play games, right, and you're aware that they have practice and they have meetings and film study and things like that. But there's so much that goes into the day they step on the court. So there's people involved that most people don't have an understanding or know about.

There is time involved that most people don't understand or have knowledge of, because of course it's it's not covered by anybody, Right, We're interested in the encourt success and the game and the practice, and that is really important and what the coaching staff does. But there's so much more than this season there's so much more than the game.

We really want to make sure that we support the players three hundred and sixty five days a year, twenty four hours a day, and that they have a support system that addresses the different facets of their lives. Working for a team, you get lucky. You get to see some of the things that happened behind the scenes that you know, I think back to my time is like a true sports fan when I was younger, You're right, all you pay attention to is like, well, these guys.

There's fame, and there's prominence, and there's financial perks that come with being a professional athlete. But you know, just the last couple of days, you have one guy on the team who picks up and goes to China. Another guy who's playing down in the G League gets his first type of NBA deal. I mean, there's constantly things that are happening. When yourself, you pick up and you move across the country into a new place, you hit the ground running. You gotta figure out where to live,

you gotta get health insurance. I mean, these mighty sound like trivial things, but they're also like if you look at your own life, I mean, these are vital to your well being, your holistic wellbeing. I would think right, definitely. My mentor used to say, the only constant is change, and I think when you adapt that mindset of being ready for whatever is coming at you and having a support system that can support those transitional phases, that's when

a person becomes successful. Whether they are athletes, whether they're you and I or anybody else working a different type of job. You just have to be prepared for all the changes that are happening in life. Happens. I say this often life happens to you and I, and it happens to professional athletes. The challenges are often similar. Whether you have, you know, a quote normal job or you

are a professional athlete. Certainly the income is a little bit different, but you're still dealing with family dynamics, you're still dealing with financial challenges, you're still dealing with pressure

in a lot of ways. Athletes more so than the average person of course, so there's a lot of outside influences that influence an athletes career and a person's live and so again, change is constant, and we're just here to support those transitional stages with I would think the end goal being just too as much as you possibly can put them the right frame of mind to deal with the essence of their job, which is maximizing their

performance in this case on the court. Right. Absolutely, what we're really trying to do is we're trying to maximize growth and we're trying to minimize distractions and challenges. That's probably the easiest way to look at it. In reading some of the footnotes of your bio, You're from Germany.

You came to the United States for a bit, went back then went to Winona, States, which is what southern Minnesota, close to Wisconsin ish and you ran track and field there was that the only sport that you play in your life. You're always a track and field athlete or what sports. I've made a lot of sports growing up. So I grew up on the Swiss border, so snow mountains, that's kind of my backyard. So I was actually a downhill skier. I ran track and field. I tried basketball

for a short period of my life. I was always involved in sports. Came from a big sports family. Just always very active, trying to, you know, get away from school as much as possible at that point in my life and just be active. Was there one experience, whether you had yourself firsthand or that you witnessed elsewhere, that shaped your mind and put you on this path, because it seems like reading through what you've done, trying to manage the overall experience as an athlete has been a

pretty consistent theme. Yeah. Absolutely, It's actually funny. I sometimes look back to how I got started in this. Of course, being an athlete myself helped because I understood what it's like to have injuries. I understood what it was like to, you know, from one day to the next, lose the one thing you identify with the most, which is being

an athlete. If you've done sports your entire life, and you play in college or you play at the professional level, and so I try to track it back to that one moment, and that one's hard to pinpoint, but I think my now husband we met a long time ago in high school in the United States when I first came and he was a really talented football player, and he sustained a severe injury before going to college and

wasn't allowed to do contact sports anymore. So seeing him firsthand go through that transition of when something drastic happens and you lose the one thing you love the most so fast that I think became the catalyst of me to help athletes really deal with those types of transitions.

And so that influenced, you know, me helping my track and field members to think about, all right, what other than sports am I It influenced me being a student athlete advisor to focus on academics, to focus on professional growth of student athletes. It kind of led me to that path of player development in a lot of ways, and it led me to the University of Florida where I got to work with an incredible amount of different

athletes and student athletes. You know, you have everything from softball players to olympians and gymnastics to swimmers who of course the football and the basketball players. You have first round draft picks, and you have those that are competing at the Division one level but won't be professional athletes following their collegiate careers. So it just gives you that deep breath of experience dealing with different student athletes, different

roles in different levels of competition. Looking back along the way you focused in crisis communication sports for your PhD. Can give me an example of crisis communication. You know, it's honestly, it could be anything, right, It's the little things like athletes tweeting something that they probably shouldn't have said,

and it could be big things. One of my research studies was on the bullying scandal at the Dolphins, So it's looking at those different crisis moments per se in sports that happened with athletes and how the athletes respond to it, and also how fans respond to those incidents. It could be anything. It could be a fight at a bar, it could be a tweet, it could be steroids,

it could be a conflict with a coach. There's so many different things that you can look at, and that's what was fascinating to me, is just looking at how do fans respond to those things and does winning influence how fans perceived those incidents. That was actually what my dissertation was about. Very cool, very cool. How did the Oakland Raider's opportunity come up? Well, I'd always known ever since I was in my masters that I had wanted to work in the NFL. And I don't know why.

I came from Germany. I didn't know much about football, But when you live in Wisconsin and the Minnesota for a while football seems to be king at least there. So I knew I wanted to work in the NFL, and I along the way, I often got told, look, those roles are so infrequent. Usually there's one person at each team it tends to be a former player. In ninety nine percent of the time, those are males in that role, in that particular role. So most people probably

would have been discouraged to hear that. And I just always knew there is a place for females in this environment. There needs to be diversity of thought when it comes to professional sports. And so I kind of just at the University of Florida started to connect with people that were in this athlete development world and got connected to people at the Jaguars and people at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

And when my time at Florida was done, the stars aligned and the Oakland Raiders who are hiring for this position. And what is really really amazing about that opportunity at the time was that sort of the OG of player development in the NFL was the director of player Engagement for the Oakland Raiders. So he's a person that has worked in this field for twenty some years who's that Lamont Winston. So he was my boss at the Raiders and he came from the Kansas City Chiefs before that,

spent seventeen years there. So he has just this wealth of knowledge about athlete development and player programs and dealing with the challenges that come along in an athlete's life because he's seen literally everything. He's been doing this for twenty years. So for me to be able to go there, to get an opportunity to have somebody that believes that there's a need for women in this space, that was incredible.

So I owe a lot to him. I owe a lot to the Oakland Raiders as an organization, and certainly had some amazing players that I was able to work with while I was there. I always feel that it's unfortunate to have to bring up the aspect of gender and breaking barriers shouldn't be that way. Great to see that it's evolving and changing, But did you find that was it how selling your idea and you fulfilling that

type of role. Was it easier or more difficult than what you might have expected it to be when you were trying to break into the NFL. Honestly, I think the breaking impart is always the hardest, right, Like, once you're in, it's usually not an issue really at all, And I never had any issues being a female once

I was there. I think it's just more so getting people to understand that they should give it a shot and how it can diversify just everything and give a different perspective, and how helpful that can be for athletes. So while I was there, absolutely no problems at all.

I actually think in a lot of ways it was an asset to be a female in a very male dominated field field because the athletes, again, they're so used to being around other males, so that when you are one of the few women in the organization, they because they want a diversity of thought, they gravitate towards you, because they want to have different conversations, they want to

have different perspectives. I'm sure that some ways, just being something that's different, seeing the heights and levels that you've ascended to, that almost commands respect in some ways, I would think too. Absolutely, it's all about trust and respect. I think, especially in a role like player development, when you're trying to build better men and better players in the process, you can't do this job without respect and trust. And relationships. I think those are sort of the key

ingredients to this. I don't want to belabor the point. Is it a point of pride though, for you to be a woman in this role, to have gotten to where you are in the field. I've you know, it's really cool here that the Sixers you can ask a lot of different females that question because there are lots of females and leadership roles, and I feel like everyone

has a different opinion. Again, I feel like it's it's almost cliche and easy to ask a question like that, but also it's probably you know, it is part of the story. It is obviously, you know, when you're taking the job, you almost don't think about it because you're just so excited about getting it and getting started and getting going and working with the guys and making sure that the vision that you had coming in comes true.

And then when it gets announced, it almost like that's when it hits you because you're getting so many messages from people, Like the day that my press release was released, the amounts of just messages I got from on Twitter and on my cell phone from former students or even athletes that said, you know, you're such an inspiration, and truly that's not why I do this, but is it nice to hear, of course, because I think what happens is when you see more women in these types of role,

you're you're allowing younger women or other professional women who want to get there that it's possible because you're looking for those types of people while you're trying to climb the ladder, while you're being told no over and over and over again. So it's in that regard, it's humbling in a lot of ways. I'm just excited to be here and to get started. But if along the way that helps a little girl to believe in herself just one more day, then I am happy to fulfill that role.

When you look back, let's look at Florida and Oakland, any particular success stories or experiences that you're proud of stuff.

I'm proud of so many of my players and athletes, to be honest, I mean, there are certainly big moments, you know, those those big programs that you're building that just kind of take off, and then honestly, there are moments where you're just excited that a player, because of what he had gone through that day, makes it onto the practice field or gets to the game and balls out and no one knows about it but you and the player itself. So those are moments of pride right

that I have. And there again are so many athletes that I was fortunate to work with that have achieved awesome things. Bruce Irvan I'm always so proud of because he's not only a great player, he's a great person. And he really really grew when he got to Oakland.

He's such a community guy and went back to school and graduated, And there's not a day where I don't tell him how proud I am of him, just because of where he's been and how far he's come and how amazing of an example he's setting now for his son. And then there is you know, student athletes who have transitioned into the real world, so to speak, away from sports, and they're doing amazing things. So there is just there

are so many moments of pride for me. I can't really pinpoint too many directly because looking back at the years that I've been able to work with student athletes and professional athletes, um, it's truly amazing what they're capable of doing. And if I was able to shape it in a small way that makes me proud. But looking at their family lives and if they're doing good, that's amazing. You know. Having them introduced me to their their children

and such, that's awesome. Um, yesterday actually I was facetiming one of my players who just had a baby, and so he just seeing him be so excited about his next journey as a dad, like that's really that's that's what makes me proud, you know, seeing them not just as players but as people. Textualize some of this in a concrete example, Can you tell me about the Raiders Family boot Camp and what that involved, what that was designed to zoo just to give people an example the

stuff that you were working on. Yeah, absolutely so. In player engagement, we tend to try programming that will just take things to the next level, right, and so much of it is obviously focused on the players, right fully, so, but there are these outside influences that we talked about earlier, the support system that a player has, right, And so my Bosslon mont Winston, who had spoken about just a little bit ago, and me we sat down and kind of talked about, Okay, what can we do next to

really take it to the next level and make sure that our players are taking care of How can we take care of the rookies coming in and transition and the best way we can. So we have this big transition program for the rookies, right we take them through different classes and activities and try to transition them into

being true pros on and off the field. And so we thought, all right, we give them the expectations, we give them all the drills, all the tools, but are we almost neglecting not including their family members because there's such a big part of this whole experience. And so

we decided we wanted to include the family members. And thankful for a great GM who saw the vision and a president who supported the vision, and we were allowed to fly in two family members for each of our rookies drafted and undrafted to Oakland for a weekend and we put them through a boot camp truly like it was structured like a normal day in a players live, you know, early mornings, late evenings, meetings, activities, and they got to hear what it's like, what the expectations are,

what the time commitment is, how they can really enhance the players experience or how they can hurt it. We were looking at family dynamics and incorporating coaches and former players and current players into the process. They got to ask the questions that they had that their sons might not have been asked forthcoming with just because they're living

in this crazy world at the time. But yeah, it was truly awesome and kind of seeing it throughout the season, how helpful it was, you know, fast tracking those relationships and understanding where the players are coming from and why they are the way they are. That that was a really neat program that we're really proud of. It's funny. It's even thinking about my own family and friends, and this is not too disparage any of them in any way whatsoever. In some ways, the questions about like what

you do revolves around the games. Like I was when the six or are down in DC the other night, and a friend of mine who's from the area of texting right when the game was done, like you want to come and get a beer after the game? Well, you know, right after the game, there's like locker room stuff to cover. There's then things you have to you have to produce content. Oh and by the way, you have to get on the plane and come back home.

It's like it is just it is so more than just the four or five hours you might be in the venue that you are either working in or playing at or that sort of thing. And I find that even in something minis school is the role that I occupy. It's like your friends and your family, just there's so much more that goes into it. They don't always realize. Say absolutely absolutely, it's a lot. And you need their support. You know, you need your family support. Athletes need their

family support. I've got it pretty easy. I don't know if I need, you know, relative to some of these other guys. All right, just bringing to wrap this up and bringing full circle, what are you most eager to experience learn about now that you're going from the NFL to the NBA. I mean, there's so much I need to learn right at this point, just transferring from one board to the other into a different organization and different

group of guys. I mean, I'm really excited to get to know all the guys um well and kind of understand their passions and just the way they kind of tick in a lot of ways. Right, and then again I've mentioned it earlier, the makeup of this organization is so incredible, and just to be a part of it and soak it in and help shape it in a

small way. That's what I'm excited about is just be here being Philly, get act liamated with the team's culture, the city's culture, and learn everything that I can from all the people that are around me because there's such a wealth of knowledge. Was the type of thing where over the course the next couple of weeks, months, you pull players aside, introduce yourself, start talking to them, beginning

the dialogue. How does that take shape? Yeah? Absolutely, I've met a couple of guys just in passing already, you know, and definitely looking to fortify those relationships as we go on, just get to know them a little bit. It's because sports and their schedules are so crazy, it almost is. You become really good at what we call these strategic bumps.

You know, you bump into them at lunch or breakfast or in the hallway just in passing, and you don't necessarily get these deep conversations where you sit down with them for hours at a time, but you gain a lot of knowledge even just having quick conversations in passing. And I think it'll happen organically. It won't be a big presentation and introduction and all of that, so it'll happen organically and I'm looking forward to it. The same

thing with the family members. I've met a few family members already and they've been great, so definitely that is the part I'm looking forward to. Ye. I think too that seventeen players on an NBA roster, maybe throwing some of the G League players as well. I mean, that's got to be a different landscape than what you're used to with the NFL, where you've got fifty three guys

and practice squad and you know, a huge staff as well. Yeah, definitely, I come from you know, in the offseason, ninety players and then fifty three on the roster, ten practice squad, and then the ir guys right injured resort guys. So at any given time in the NFL, you have anywhere from I would say sixty three to ninety players. So that is a lot, and to compare it to the NBA,

it's quite different. But that should also be exciting because that means, you know, you can really really deep dive with them, some of them because you just have fewer of them. Awesome interesting stuff from the seventy six or new vice president of player Development, Annalie Schmidle. Thanks so much for your time, catch your breath at some point, hopefully soon, and best luck getting started. Thank you so

much for having you well. Obviously, as you heard her describe, Annalie with a really strong track record developed over the last couple of years between the NCAA and the Oakland Raiders. Cannot wait to see what she brings now too at the Sixers. Appreciate her taking some time out of what has been a hectic and a whirlwind first couple of days in Philadelphia and Camden to do the podcast. Thank you as always for listening, and we'll talk to you next week's