A day designed for young professional in Salina Thursday featured among other things, a motivational presentation from an area native who is now an ESPN Sportscenter anchor. “The Coach”, Jonathan Coachman, spoke during a luncheon at the Salina Bicentennial Center as a part of the 2014 Kansas YP Summit.

Coachman is a McPherson native, graduating from McPherson High School and then McPherson College. He has been a Sportscenter anchor at ESPN since 2008. He also has done extensive work on ESPN Radio and currently is the host of Football Sunday every Sunday during the NFL season. After television sports jobs in Wichita and Kansas City, Coachmen spent 9 years as a commentator/character for Vince McMahon in the WWE.

“The Coach” spoke in Salina about dreaming big, staying with the “Dream Big Kansas” topic of the day. Coachman said he is “big on want to”, citing players who “want to” get to the loose ball and use extra effort, and anchors who “want to” put in the extra effort to make a broadcast even better.

Coachman said that he embraces trying to be great, and encouraged everone else to do be great in what they do everyday, saying “if your an accountant, be the best accountant you can be”. He added “everyday I look in the mirror and say to I want to be great today”. 

Other events at the all-day summit included a panel discussion with the presidents of multiple Kansas universitys including Dr. Ed Hammond, Fort Hays State University, Dr. Kirk Schulz, Kansas State University, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, University of Kansas, Dr. Michael Shonrock, ESU and Mr. Shawn L. Naccarato, Pittsburg State University.

The day ended on a light-hearted note, with a performance by comedian / hypnotist Chris Jones.