Day 20: A person in my past and why

I am grateful for my college track coach.  She was good at her job in the sense that she knew how to recruit, she stayed on top of the newest techniques in jumps coaching, and she was organized.  But the really important thing was that she cared about all of her athletes.  She cared about our athletic performance, but she also cared about supporting our academics and nurturing and growing us as human beings. 

Like many people, college was my first time living away from home.  Moving 1400 miles away to a college and a region of the country that was radically different from my hometown was a culture shock, and it was good to have an adult on campus who you knew you could count on if you needed anything.  There was one meet in my freshmen year where I unexpectedly dislocated my knee.  It was a memorable day in many ways - first time on a military campus (the meet was at West Point), first and only time winning a college track meet, and first time riding in an ambulance.  My coach left the meet in the middle, rode with me in the ambulance, got in touch with my parents, and comforted me as it looked like I was going to need knee surgery (i didn't).  I'm grateful that she helped me get through a scary experience.

I'm also grateful that she gave attention and care to all the jumpers on the team, not just the stars.  The Ivy League has an unusual spread of athletes.  They can't offer athletic scholarships and they maintain rigorous academic admission standards, so this thins out the pool of potential team members and means that some of us would be better suited for a small Division 3 school (i was definitely in this group).  But because they are Division I and provide an excellent education, there's always some exceptional athletes and sometimes even a few members of the team who are future Olympians.  In this situation, where you have a very broad range of talent, it would be very tempting to focus all your time and energy on the star athletes.  Our coach was good at finding ways to develop and encourage all of us, and made all of us feel valued.  I am very grateful for that.