Her Story
About Kelsie
I've been involved in sports my whole life, starting when I was young around age 5 or 6. When I went into high school, I started coaching as a volunteer coach with a 5th grade travel team, and we ended up winning the championship that year, which got me hooked. I went on to play in college, and throughout college I was still coaching at my former high school. I ended up landing a collegiate coaching gig, and during that time I was teaching and coaching a high school team and coaching collegiately. Then I moved more into the world of collegiate athletics and have been in that world pretty much ever since. My undergraduate degree was actually in education, health and physical education, and I never imagined that collegiate coaching would be in my realm of things I would get the opportunity to do - it kind of accidentally fell in my lap. My current role at the community college started as just another job because I needed some extra money, and it ended up being something I fell totally in love with. They promoted me to full-time within a year because they realized there was a need for the role that I had. I kind of put the collegiate coaching to the side and focused on more of the athletic advising, and then still just to stay involved in coaching, that's why I coach at the high school and run those camps and clinics. In my role, I work with our student-athletes to make sure they're maintaining their coursework and excelling in their classes so they're eligible to play and compete. That involves doing class checks, going to classes, and sitting them down and having deeper conversations about what's going on in their life and how that might be impacting their success. I deal mainly with the football team athletically, just because they tend to have the lower GPAs out of our student population. A lot of them are away from home for the first time and need that mom figure almost in their life. I recently took a group of them fishing because many of our kids are from city areas and they've never had the experiences I had growing up in more of a rural area. They mentioned they had never gone fishing before, so me and my supervisor took them out to one of the ponds on campus, and they're actually planning to go back out as a team. The nice thing about working at a junior college is we get new faces every two years, so I get two years to try to make the biggest impact I can, and then I get a new class. It's a fast turnaround, but it's also a fast opportunity to see my impact.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kelsie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think my work ethic is definitely a huge part of it, but I also wouldn't have been able to get where I am without my husband. We've made a lot of sacrifices, and starting off, all of my work was part-time, so he had to pick up another job - he's a police officer, so it's been a lot of picking up extra shifts, and a lot of times not together. But he's never said no to me chasing my dreams. That support has been invaluable to my success.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My grandpa told me one time that the minimum range for excuses is zero yards. That's something I've really taken to heart. Never make an excuse, always show up on time, do the best that you can absolutely do, and always go above and beyond. My grandpa was in the Vietnam War, and that was the first thing that the drill sergeant yelled at him, and it just stuck with him ever since. He passed that wisdom on to me, and it's shaped how I approach everything in my career.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think it's just follow your passions, and know that even if you fall off track or something doesn't seem right, God always has a bigger, better plan. I work in a field that's really taken over by men - I sit at a table and there's maybe one other woman at that table with me on a good day. But I kind of see it as a challenge, and it's really what you make of it. I'm very lucky that I work within an athletic department and with a group of men who see me as valuable and credible, and they take everything I say into consideration, and they don't look down upon me for any reason. So my advice is to follow your passions and trust that things will work out the way they're meant to.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the biggest opportunity I have is that working at a junior college, we get new faces every two years, so the nice thing about that is I get two years to try to make the biggest impact I can, and then I get a new class. So it's a fast turnaround, but it's also a fast opportunity to see my impact. I get students for two years, and I'm going to do my best to see what those results are in two years, and I don't have to wait four years to see what they're going to be at the end of their career. So I hit the ground running with each new group.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Family, I think, comes first, always, and always will. I try really hard to set work-life boundaries, not just for myself, but to set an example for my kids. Because one day they're going to have a job, and it's important that they realize how important their family is, and they need to be able to set those boundaries too. Right now it's just me and my husband and our dogs, but I do my best to prioritize that relationship as well, and to maintain those boundaries for the eventuality of kids.
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