Katie Woodruff, associate director of athletics and senior woman administrator, spoke about her childhood experience with sports and how it has shaped her life in the final Town and Gown lecture of the semester on Nov. 10.
Sports can either break down or build up barriers, Woodruff said in her talk, titled “Sports as Character Formation: A Personal Reflection.”
She asked her audience to consider whether character is something people are born with or something they build through choices and discipline. For Woodruff, the answer is clear.
“Sports don’t define character, yet they reveal character,” she said.
Athletic pursuits provide an opportunity to strive for excellence in physical performance and character, Woodruff said, but they also test endurance. The key is to have a mindset of growth rather than a fixed mindset, she said.
Woodruff spoke about her experience as a “latchkey kid” in a dysfunctional household. She said she participated in swimming, basketball, softball and bowling, and played on an all-boys football team.
Since she spent little time with her parents, the influential adults in Woodruff’s life were her coaches, she said.
When she moved to a small Arkansas town in middle school, Woodruff met basketball coach Brad Blue. After the first practice, Coach Blue called Woodruff to his office and let her know he saw potential in her, but he would demand it from her, she said.
“He had a higher standard for me than I had for myself,” Woodruff said.
She said she began to learn and understand the value of hard work and dedication at this time.
At one practice, after her team lost to less talented opponent, Coach Blue told them they had to “run until the cows come home,” Woodruff said. He set out a garbage can so they could throw up if needed, she said, but made it clear they had to keep running. Challenges like these taught Woodruff to encourage and support her teammates in hard times, she said.
“People like Coach Blue can steer you in one of two directions,” Woodruff said. “You can either become a better you or succumb to your circumstances and think, ‘Oh, if that’s what coach thinks of me, then that’s what I really am.”
For Woodruff, it was the former. She said her sports mentors steered her away from making bad choices in high school and beyond. “For me, it was the investment that other people had made in my life that made me want to not make poor choices,” she said.
More than 30 million American youth participate in sports, Woodruff said, and can benefit greatly from the experience. She cited studies indicating that children involved in sports learn to set and achieve goals, cope with failure and frustration and have higher self-esteem.
Woodruff encouraged parents and coaches to go beyond athletic coaching to personal investment in children’s lives. A big part of who she is today is due to her coaches, she said.
“Children and youth are impressionable, and you [as a coach] have the potential to become one of the most influential adults in a young person’s life forever,” Woodruff said. “Their skills, their potential and what they will look like later in life.”
