{"id":22881,"date":"2024-06-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/?post_type=insight&#038;p=22881"},"modified":"2024-07-17T09:02:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T14:02:21","slug":"panpov-how-becoming-coach-kiah-changed-my-life","status":"publish","type":"insight","link":"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/insights\/panpov-how-becoming-coach-kiah-changed-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"PANpov: How Becoming \u201cCoach Kiah\u201d Changed My Life\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>This piece is part of our\u00a0<strong>PANpov<\/strong>\u00a0series \u2014 firsthand stories from employees about personal experiences.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/insights\/?search=panpov\">Read more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve never been much of a teacher. I have issues with patience, and teaching people things that I already know how to do frustrated me. Well, until I started coaching.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During my childhood, I played <em>all <\/em>the sports \u2013 gymnastics, volleyball, softball, soccer, track, you name it. They were an outlet for me. Getting to spend time with my friends, experiencing the joys of winning, and seeing the look on my parents\u2019 faces at my events. It gave me so much joy\u2026 until it didn\u2019t. To explain that requires some backstory.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I vividly remember starting track and field in the 6<sup>th<\/sup> grade. My best friend\u2019s dad ran his own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.16ways.org\/16waystrack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AAU<\/a> track team, so naturally, I was forced to join by both my parents and my friend. I HATED the thought of running (still do); every aspect of it made me cringe (still does). However, I was a bit stronger than your normal 6<sup>th<\/sup> grade girl, so my coach suggested I try the throwing events \u2013 shot put and discus. I immediately realized it was the perfect way to get out any built-up frustrations \u2013 throwing a heavy metal ball and disc as far as I could. As I practiced more, I got pretty good: winning lots of gold medals, breaking my school record, making it to state and national championships, and eventually getting an offer for an athletic scholarship to college.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my last years of high school, though, I lost all love for the sport. I don\u2019t know if this change of heart came from the immense pressures of aiming to be the best, the burnout from my busy schedule, or the lack of coaching and encouragement at my high school, but I wanted nothing to do with it. I even turned down my scholarship \u2013 whether that was a good choice or not, I still don\u2019t have the answer.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fast forward to graduating college \u2013 obviously, a lot of things changed in those 4 years. I had a chance to mature mentally and gained a new appreciation for the power of mentorship. After moving back to my hometown, my AAU coach asked if I\u2019d help with the throwers on the team. Everything in me wanted to say no \u2013 but that was my family, so I decided to try it out.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially, I wasn\u2019t sure about it until I started seeing the difference the track program made in kids\u2019 lives. For a lot of athletes, the track is their home away from home. For some, this is their way of staying out of trouble. We coach kids from a variety of backgrounds \u2013 some from amazingly supportive households with parents at every event and some with absolutely no support from home whatsoever. I quickly learned that I \u2013 and the rest of the coaching staff \u2013 needed to be there for the kids more than just athletically.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This past school year, I started coaching on another team where a lot of the kids don\u2019t come from much. They attend a school with a graduation rate that would make anyone reading this ask, \u201cHow is this school still open?\u201d For a lot of these kids, they\u2019d rather be on the track than at home, and as a coach, I don&#8217;t take that lightly. It\u2019s a challenge getting some of the athletes to stay consistent \u2013 but for those that do, it\u2019s amazing to see the progress they make. Through the hard practices, and the easy ones, they always try to give 100% \u2013 and make sure their peers do the same. They recognize that for the situation they\u2019re in, they must work a little harder than others to be recognized, but they do it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In May, I got to see this same group of kids win the Regional Championship for the first time in school history, for <em>any <\/em>sport, and the emotions that flowed that day were priceless. It made me glad I gave coaching a try because not only do I get to spend way more time with those I love, but I get to be part of a community \u2013 one where nobody is left behind, and there\u2019s an immense amount of support.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On my hardest days, even the days I don&#8217;t feel like I can coach, the kids get me through it. Seeing the smiles on their faces when they greet me and say, \u201cHi, Coach Kiah\u201d can fix just about any mood I\u2019m in or make the challenges in my life seem like less \u2013 just don&#8217;t tell them that. \ud83d\ude09 I have learned so much from my athletes, and the close-knit relationships I\u2019ve built with them is something I can rave about all day. They teach me what it means to have fun and stay young, how to not take things so seriously, and how to appreciate the small things in life.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a coach, a goal of mine is to make sure that the athletes I work with never lose their love for the sport \u2013 that it never becomes a task for them, like it did for me. Track and field is such an amazing, unique sport because as much as you compete against others \u2013 it&#8217;s truly a daily competition against yourself. Your goal at every practice, meet, etc. is to be better than you were the last time \u2013 to reach your own personal goals and to push yourself further and further every single time. That really teaches the kids to stay in their own lanes (no pun intended) and work on constantly pushing themselves out of their comfort zone to see results.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To see the kids succeed is my only wish. However, success doesn\u2019t only mean winning \u2013 it means being your best self every day, building long-lasting, meaningful relationships, and being a <em>good person<\/em>. I hope that I\u2019m making as much of an impact on them as they are on me.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of my \u201cfree time\u201d is spent coaching. During the summer, we spend two hours four times a week practicing, and on the weekends \u2013 anywhere from 10-20 hours at track meets out in the hot sun or freezing rain (with Michigan weather, you never know what you\u2019re going to get). During the school season, I take my lunch hour to go to practice and spend my Saturdays at track meets. I\u2019m extremely thankful that PAN is so flexible because without the ability to step away for a bit during the day, I wouldn\u2019t be able to do what I do for these kids. For that, I am forever grateful.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you made it this far \u2013 thank you for reading my story. Volunteering and coaching will always hold a special place in my heart. I wouldn\u2019t trade it for the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>LEARN MORE ABOUT THE\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/about\/people-culture\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PEOPLE AND CULTURE AT PAN<\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22927,"template":"","categories":[161],"insight_type":[164],"insight_author":[692],"class_list":["post-22881","insight","type-insight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-agency-life","insight_type-blog","insight_author-kiah-anderson"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PANpov: How Becoming \u201cCoach Kiah\u201d Changed My Life\u00a0 - PAN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The PANpov series shares firsthand accounts from PAN employees about the unique life experiences they bring to integrated marketing and PR.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/insights\/panpov-how-becoming-coach-kiah-changed-my-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PANpov: How Becoming \u201cCoach Kiah\u201d Changed My Life\u00a0 - 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