When a hobby can be a career

Do you know that feeling you get when your favorite baseball team wins in extra innings with a walk-off home run after trailing 7-0 for 8 innings?

 

Or how about when your basketball team wins in overtime with a three-point shot at the buzzer?

 

Lastly, can you imagine this feeling being a part of your job? I can.

 

At the Centennial Conference Outdoor Track & Field Conference Championship last month, I experienced what it really means to be a coach…

 

Fruition

 

Kaushiki Dunusinghe, a senior captain on the Bryn Mawr team and the indoor track Centennial Conference champion in the long jump, was defending her title at the outdoor meet this past May. Having just returned from two job interviews and with work remaining on her thesis, Kaushiki arrived at the championship meet with minimal sleep (maybe thirty minutes, I think she said).

 

The long jump was the first event, and it is one of my favorites to watch (even though I never competed in it). It’s technical. It’s nerve-wracking. And as my husband says about baseball, “Anything can happen.” A 5-meter jumper can foul (and thus the 5 meters won’t count) if the smallest bit of her toe crosses the “board,” which is the line at which the athlete must take off to jump.

 

While Kaushiki was certainly tired and stressed from being a senior in college, and while she had battled her fair share of injury throughout the season, she was prepared to contend with the top jumper at Haverford, the other favorite to win the event. Of the fifteen women in Kaushiki’s flight, seven of them jumped further than her in the first of three jumps. Kaushiki had jumped 4.44 meters. Okay that’s just her first jump. She can – and will – do better than that.

 

After all fifteen jumpers took their first jump, second attempts began. 4.74, 4.95, 4.79, …Kaushiki approached the runway. Come on Kaushiki.

 

FOUL.

 

Okay here we go. Last jump. Only the top nine will make it to finals. What is going on here? Kaushiki was supposed to be a shoe-in! And now here we are at the last jump and her 4.44 will not even advance her to the final round!

 

F&M jumped 4.89. Gettysburg jumped 4.94. Dickinson jumped 4.96. Here comes Kaushiki. Her slender, speedy legs sent her swiftly down the runway. She effortlessly bounded off the board. She landed in the sand pit.

 

“Mark!” The official yelled. Phew, at least it wasn’t a foul.

 

The butterflies in my stomach were really having a party. I talked nervously to the head coach who probably wanted nothing more than for me to keep quiet.

 

“5.17,” said the official.

 

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!! YES!!

 

The entire Bryn Mawr team that had been watching shouted with pride and excitement. I, along with the head coach, raced towards Kaushiki to give her a huge hug and congratulations (as I breathed a sigh of relief).

 

Not only did her jump of 5.17 meters advance her to the finals, it also led her to win the long jump. The second and third-placed jumpers jumped 5.12 and 5.11 respectively, allowing Kaushiki to claim the outdoor title in the long jump, holding on to her champion status for two seasons in a row.

 

The feelings I experienced that day in May are among the reasons why people follow sports. Having a team to root for, feeling connected to an interest and a passion, and being part of a community in which everyone is rooting for the same thing are rewarding and exciting. What’s great about coaching is that these experiences are inherent in the job description!