My Health and Human Performance Internship: The Last Chapter

By Haley Overstreet

Seniors lacrosse players Julianne Bove, Brianne Sugatan, Haley Overstreet, and Meghin Martin. Kim Black photograph.

For the first time in my life, I picked up a lacrosse stick and a ball in the spring before my final semester of college and I instantly fell in love with the sport. If it was not for Coach Karen Harvey dedicating her time and effort into teaching me the sport outside of scheduled practices, I would have not been nearly as successful as I was for having only played one season. Fortunately, I was not only able to be one of her players, I was also able to intern under her this semester. I feel as if coaching is such an overlooked career and after spending numerous hours doing work that wasn’t field related, I have developed a newfound appreciation for all coaches. Growing up playing sports I always assumed coaches showed up for practices and games and ideally were only paid to yell at their players and win games. Boy, was I wrong. You will never actually understand and realize what a job entails until you’re placed in it. Stepping on the field and facilitating practices is roughly forty percent of the job, the other sixty percent is considerably a stress-headache and discipline, office work and recruiting.

Through my internship, I was able to see how the recruiting process works, from a coach's perspective not a player's this time; create a strenuous strength and conditioning plan for the offseason; and complete several "behind the scenes" tasks. Although, I have always known I wanted to become a coach at some point, this experience has prepared me as well as increased my desire to influence young athletes on and off the field. Now that my playing days are over and my college experience has come to an end, the next chapter of my life will be dedicated to teaching the game, aiding in the development of respectable well-rounded women, and keeping the passion for the sport alive within my players. I can only hope that one day my future players can look back at the short-lived time they were able to play, and say that I made a positive impact in their lives, just as I can say about Coach Karen Harvey and all the coaches who I was fortunate enough to ever play for. Each and every one of them has influenced my life in some way and helped me become the person I am today and for that I am grateful.