Photo courtesy of Maria Sell ’23
When you think about the typical summer job for a college student, the first thing that comes to mind for many would be an internship with some relation to an eventual desired career, such as a finance internship for an Economics major, for example. One would also think about working as a store checkout clerk or a barista as typical summer jobs for college students. For college athletes across the country, such jobs are often not what they pursue. Instead, they choose to commit to their sport full-time, spending their summers working as a coach for younger athletes.
This is the case across many of the athletes here at Connecticut College. I myself have been sailing since I was three years old, and have been a skipper on the sailing team here at Conn for my three years of college. I’ve spent the past two summers coaching back home in San Francisco, and will be spending the summer of 2023 doing the same.
Photo courtesy of Maria Sell ’23
The same is true for Maria Sell, a senior on the Women’s Water Polo team. Sell not only has spent the past several summers coaching her sport, but has played a vital role in restarting a program that had shut down:“The past three summers and two winters, I have coached high school club water polo at the club I used to play at in the Bay Area. The club had discontinued all water polo programs in 2019, so when I came on as head coach I had to rebuild the program and reach out to players and coaches in the area to spread the word about joining, and since 2021 there’s been a huge increase in participation for boys and girls, and the club is looking as strong as ever.”
Catie Donadio, a sophomore on the Women’s Basketball team, has also made an enterprise out of passing on her knowledge of basketball to the younger generations: “For the past two summers, I’ve coached young [basketball players] through one-on-one individual hourly sessions. I have created my own self-run business through this. I work with about 15 athletes per summer, and have communicated with players and their parents, getting the word out, reserving court times, and making a plan of workouts catered to each individual for each session.”
Wade Anthony, another junior on the Sailing Team, shares his experience:“I work in the summer as the Head Coach of the Rock Hall Yacht Club Sailing School racing team, coaching junior Opti, Laser, and C420 sailors. This will be my third year in the position, and I am responsible for running day-to-day practices, boat transportation to and from regattas, and coaching on the water for regattas.”
I’ve found there to be a theme on the motivation for coaching among Conn athletes, one which echoes my own motivation. I’ve been on a team of some sort since the age of three years old. Sailing in particular has been a huge part of my life, especially for the past decade. There’s something incredibly rewarding for me as a college sailor to have the opportunity to pass on my knowledge and experience to younger sailors. I see in them a younger version of myself.
Donadio mentions the motivation of seeing a family member coach while she was growing up, stating:“My dad coached me in all of my sports growing up, and seeing the connections he has made and the way he has positively impacted his athletes’ lives inspired me to try coaching…I have made my own very meaningful connections with many families and players. My community has given me so much through sports, and I thought this was a way to give back to my town.”
Anthony adds “My years as a junior sailor are some of my favorite life memories, so being able to give other young sailors a positive, fun, rewarding, and exciting experience means the world to me. I love my sport, so being able to instill a love for sailing in kids is a powerful thing.”
Coaching is also beneficial to college athletes because of the perspective it can provide them on their own performance. “I think coaching has helped me with my own performance as in basketball,” said Donadio. “The more you can get your hands on a basketball, the more comfortable you are with being in control of it. So, I feel that coaching has helped me improve my ball-handling skills as I am constantly dribbling or passing the ball during my athletes’ sessions.”
Sell added, “I believe coaching has helped me with my performance [on the Conn Water Polo team]. When I’m coaching in the summer and winter, I’m actively thinking about the sport and teaching drills that we do on the Conn team so it helps my mind stay in sports-mode, and it’s helpful to see drills play out in front of me from a different perspective.”
Anthony recalls how coaching reminds him of the importance of fundamentals that can oftentimes be lost at the collegiate level of sports: “Coaching, particularly at the junior level, constantly reminds me of the fundamental principles of the sport which can sometimes get lost at the higher levels. For example, I still find myself sitting too far back in the boat sometimes, despite having told my junior sailors to not sit in the back of the boat hundreds of times. When I catch myself doing this, I frequently think of my junior sailors and remind myself that if I’m going to talk the talk, I have to walk the walk.”
Photo courtesy of Fritz Baldauf ’24
Coaching can be more than just a summer job as well. With the experience one garners in their sport as a college athlete, graduating athletes are oftentimes uniquely qualified to coach. Sell recalls her introduction to coaching, how her passion for it has grown, and where it might continue to go:“I originally started these coaching jobs as a way to work over the summer and help bring back the club and it’s definitely become a lot more serious for me as the club has grown and I’ve been asked to return. If there are opportunities for me to coach in the future after this summer I would want to take them and I’m happy to know that water polo programs everywhere are always looking for coaches and I could find myself at a new club or school as a part-time job or more.”
Hope Olson, a junior on the Women’s Basketball team who has spent her summers coaching basketball and soccer stated that “I have definitely considered coaching in the future, especially since a recent career-ending injury happened just before this past season. It is and hopefully will continue to be a way for me to still be strongly connected to the sport even though I’m no longer able to play.”
Even if it isn’t a full-time job, we are always linked to the sports we play in college. Anthony said “I don’t plan on coaching in the same way I do now in the future, but I will certainly be looking out for little opportunities to help other sailors improve for the rest of my life!”
Many athletes spent summers at camps growing up for soccer, basketball, sailing, or any other sport, being coached by then-college athletes. We are now those college athletes doing the coaching. Many students look for a summer job for the sole purpose of making some money. The money of course is very helpful during the school year, but the reward of us giving back to the sports that have given all of us so much makes coaching extra special for Connecticut College athletes.
