January 20th, 2016 | Uncategorized
Last Friday, I had to laugh to myself while sitting in my final class of the week. At Davidson, Coach Mary Ciuk had spent pretty much all four of my undergraduate years encouraging me to take a class in Communications. She knew I was not big on the whole speaking in front of groups of people thing, and that this phobia was pretty much totally at odds with my professional goals of becoming a professor. As my lecturer at IT Carlow presented our syllabus for the year, which includes plenty of practice with presentations, I thought about how I was finally fulfilling Coach’s advice.
I had always avoided her advice, coming up with reasons why I couldn’t do what she suggested – come on Coach, I’m a double major, I don’t have any time in my schedule. But even though I continuously tried to avoid talking about it (just thinking about having to give regular speeches in front of my peers was enough to make me uncomfortable), I really valued that she was interested in my personal and professional development off of the court. I also appreciated when other coaches would do the same, like Coach Savage asking about the classes I was in and how they were going or even how my niece was doing. Such small expressions of interest meant a lot to me and my teammates. Thinking about this reminded me of the power that coaches have to make their players feel valuable. With such a position of authority comes great potential for building character. Now that I find myself in that position as a coach, I want to remember how good it felt to be valued so that I can give my own players some of that attention. It reminds me that we are not just here to develop basketball players, but to help develop people.
Victory Scholar: Lillian McCabe
Present University: IT Carlow
US League: Atlantic 10
Club/Community Partner: ITC Basketball
Alma Mater: Davidson College
Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland
