Alecia Ivery played on one of the top high school basketball teams in Illinois, but had a bad experience with the environment her coach set that she quit the team. 现在, with the help of Concordia Irvine’s Master's in Coaching and 十大正规赌平台平台管理 (MCAA) program, she is connecting kids to the joy of sports as both a coach and a leader in an organization called Girls in the Game (GIG).
“The MCAA program gave me the professional development I was looking for,我说. “I love what I do in the world of youth sports.”
But Ivery had to rebound from an unpleasant sporting experience in high school. 作为防守球员, 她阻断车道的能力, get loose balls and snatch rebounds from taller players earned her playing time.
“We were winning and were ranked among the top 25 teams in Illinois, but I stopped my senior year because of the anxiety-ridden environment我说.
Year-round competition and travel also took a toll.
“I was so tired of competing and emotionally drained that I didn’t have a chance to enjoy basketball and do it for fun,她说。.
A sports-based youth development program called Girls in the Game restored her love for basketball.
Girls in the Game allowed me to get back into the fun, and I also discovered my love for coaching,我说. “I knew I wanted to do it differently than what I have seen from my high school coach.
After earning her bachelor’s degree, she worked full-time with GIG. Today she runs their summer camp and trains over forty after-school coaches to lead sports, health and leadership programs for girls in Chicago-area schools.
In 2015, Ivery began considering a career in athletics administration. An open house in the Chicago area introduced her to 欧文康考迪亚大学's MCAA program.
“I liked how you could do both coaching and administrative classes,她说。. “I wanted to see what I could learn in both areas. I also wanted to be forced to think about my coaching philosophy and vision. It was really helpful to sit down and consider, what do I really value? 作为教练，我是谁? 我想让女孩们从我这里得到什么?”
She completed the MCAA program in a year and a half and says she “retained and learned more from the online approach than I had in classrooms.”
Ivery flew to Irvine for graduation and “felt part of this big community. Even the people I hadn’t had classes with, you’re chatting with them and sharing the experience.”
回到芝加哥, Ivery put her thesis study to work as the part-time coach for a local school team and a separate travel team. She discovered it wasn’t easy to create a positive and winning environment.
“My thesis at the end of the MCAA program was called ‘The Best of Both Worlds,’她说。. “I’m in the recreation world and the competitive world. Juggling the two and keeping my coaching vision is harder as I get into the competitive world.”
In her first year, the school team went 0-11. Some coaches wanted her to be more strict and yell at the girls to get better results. 她拒绝了.
The driving force for my coaching is to create positive sports experiences for youth so they want to continue playing,她说。. “
In youth sports, everyone plays for different reasons and you can’t have a blanket coaching approach. I make sure the girls are having a good time but also learning healthy competition and how to be okay with losing, 以及如何优雅地输赢.
这是她担任教练的第三年, 校队赢得了一场季后赛, affirming Ivery’s “best of both worlds” approach.
In early 2019, Ivery won a national Double-Goal Coach award from the Positive Coaching Alliance. The award recognizes coaches who teach competition and life skills within sports. She was one of fifty nationwide winners.
“You always wonder, am I really doing good stuff?我说. “That award validated it for me, for sure. 就像，人们看到了它.”
额外的奖励 & 成就
- 2017年，我是 《十大正规赌平台平台》的简介 她工作的体育网站. The Undefeated is owned by ESPN and bills itself as “the premier platform for exploring the intersections of race, 体育与文化.”
- Ivery received 欧文康考迪亚大学’s MCAA Award of Excellence at the 2019 加州教练会议.
- In Fall 2019, Ivery was profiled by the 芝加哥太阳时报 as part of their “Hardest-Working Voices in Sports”series.