Lynda (Clevidence) Erickson- Mom & Coach

Lynda (Clevidence) Erickson played for the Streaks in 1990 & 1991. She was a very athletic post player. She was not afraid to be physical, and sometimes the refs thought too physical. Lynda was a great teammate, who understood what it meant to play hard. She was very coachable. When you spoke, she listened with her eyes. Lynda helped create a positive culture on our team with her attitude.  

She went off to Illinois Wesleyan, and I never saw her again until 7-8 years ago. Her daughter was playing basketball for Dunlap. Lynda has not changed, and was easily identifiable in the crowd. 

I wanted to do this Q/A with Lynda to talk to her about being a mom to four very athletic children. I find it interesting to hear how “athletic moms” parent “athletic children.” And the other big thing I wanted to talk to Lynda about is her coaching career. Lynda has been a youth coach for her kids as they have grown up, and now she is sophomore girls basketball coach at Dunlap HS. We need former female athletes to get into coaching, so it is exciting to talk to Lynda about her coaching journey. 

In high school, you were a regular as a junior on a team that took 2nd in WB6 and won the Regional. Then as a senior, you started for a team that won the WB6, won a Regional, and were ranked in the top 20 in Illinois. Any favorite memories from your high school basketball?

It’s hard pick out just one favorite memory, I had a great experience overall at Galesburg. It might sound cliche but my best memories are of my teammates and coaches! They helped make my experience good every season. I was lucky to always have great teammates and I loved competing with them. We had fun together on and off the court, and I think that our teamwork reflected that. I’m proud to have been a part of such a great program at Galesburg. More specifically, my favorite memories were Michigan team camp and summer league games in the summer, and then winning conference and regionals to keep the winning tradition going. And now that I am older, I look back and really appreciate being able to play in so many cool gyms like at Rock Island and Moline. Our Dunlap teams played at Wharton Field House this past season and I still remember how hard, but fun, it was to play there!

You went to Illinois Wesleyan and continued to play basketball. Today kids think they need to get a scholarship to play college basketball. What would you tell high school players about the opportunity to play D3 college basketball?

There are a lot of quality non-scholarship college programs looking to fill their rosters. Players should always keep their options open for all levels of play. It’s still the same game that is being played everywhere else. There is a lot of talent that plays at the D3/non-scholarship level and it’s just as competitive. It’s an honor to be offered a roster spot for any school at any level. Not every high school student-athlete gets the chance to continue playing. 

Division 3 schools also have a lot to offer. You might have the opportunity to play multiple sports, an option you don’t typically have when you are playing a sport on a scholarship. Division 3 schools are typically smaller as well, with smaller and more personalized classroom experiences. There are a lot of financial aid options available at these smaller schools as well, through their own financial aid packages and academic scholarship adjustments, so an athletic scholarship isn’t always needed to get that D3 education and sports experience.

Your family has moved around some before settling in Dunlap. Tell me about your family and where you have lived.

Bud and I have have 4 children. Morgan is 24 and works for Caterpillar in Human Resources. She graduated from Appalachian State, got a job with Caterpillar in San Diego and now back here in Peoria. We are really enjoying having her close by after she spent the last five years being so far away. Ryan is 20, he is now a junior at Drake University and playing football there, majoring in computer science and data analytics. Casey is 18 and just graduated from Dunlap and is playing football at Augustana College and has plans to major in data analytics and marketing. Our youngest, Bree, is 15 and a sophomore at Dunlap. She keeps busy playing basketball and hanging out with friends. And we have two big dogs, Marley who is a Labrador-Golden Retriever mix, and a Golden Retriever named Bear. 

Bud has worked for Caterpillar now for 24 years. He started out working at the Joliet Caterpillar plant, I was working for a company in Oak Park, and we lived in Naperville and Plainfield areas. We then relocated with his Caterpillar job to South Carolina, Dunlap, Indiana and then back to Dunlap where we’ve been for 10 years now. Some of the moves have been smoother than others! Relocating with kids was really challenging at times but I think in the end it always worked out great, and really provided some personal growth opportunities for us all. We all had to adjust each time and at different times in our lives. I am very thankful for each of the opportunities to live where we did! We have all met some great friends and had some great experiences along the way.

Your children have been very successful athletically. First, tell me about your kids’ athletic journeys. What are some of the challenges of being parents of athletes? How do you manage pushing them without pushing them too hard?

Morgan played soccer and basketball her whole life, with a little bit of gymnastics and swimming in there as well. She played travel soccer in Indiana and then here in the Peoria area as well. She didn’t play travel basketball but after we moved to Indiana she found that soccer was her true sport passion. Fun fact: she has 5 varsity letters in soccer! She started on her varsity soccer team in Indiana, where it is a fall sport. We then moved to Dunlap over that winter and she played on the varsity soccer team all of her four years there. She earned several athletic honors in soccer over her first 3 seasons, was interested in pursuing soccer in college and was being recruited but she suffered a second major knee injury and decided not to play in college.

Ryan played football and baseball for Dunlap. When he was younger he played flag football, then JFL. He also swam, played basketball, travel soccer and travel baseball all growing up and in middle school he added track to that list. He had fun playing all of these, but quickly figured out that football was his favorite sport. He had a great football experience at Dunlap. He played 3 years on varsity and his senior season the team played in the state championship game. He earned several athletic honors as well. As I mentioned previously, he’s now a junior and playing for Drake University as a defensive end.

Casey graduated from Dunlap this year. He played football, basketball (2 years) and baseball at Dunlap. He also played travel soccer, flag football, JFL, travel baseball and travel basketball all growing up. He enjoyed each sport and every season he said that particular sport was his favorite! He really enjoyed playing basketball and football the most as he got older. He decided not to play basketball his junior year after he suffered a major ankle injury in football. He also had a successful high school football career, playing on the varsity team for 3 seasons including playing on special teams as a sophomore on the team that went to state. It was fun for us as parents having both boys play together on the same team, and making a run for the state championship together! Casey also earned some athletic honors for football and, as I mentioned, is playing football at Augustana.

Bree is a sophomore now so she’s still early in her high school career. She played travel soccer, did gymnastics and played recreation and travel basketball and ran track in middle school. I was coaching Morgan’s travel basketball team when she was just a baby so she has been around the game her whole life. This past season as a freshman, she played for both the freshman and JV teams and was voted MVP for her freshman team. She’s in a unique situation, not only coming up behind three successful, older siblings but also as has her mom as one of her high school basketball coaches. She will have her own high school story to tell in a few years. And an historic one it will be, one that involves socially-distanced summer workouts on the turf and outside the weight room, 10’ away from her teammates, wearing a mask during indoor practice, 14-day quarantines and crossing our fingers that we will even have some sort of basketball season!

My kids’ journeys haven’t always been smooth or easy and I’m proud of how each of them worked through their ups and downs. There have been times they’ve been frustrated, were not having fun, dealing with teammate issues, been on losing teams, or just struggling to prioritize school, sports and friends. But I would say the biggest challenge of all for them has been coming back from injuries. My kids have had some major injuries. Morgan had two ACL reconstructions, Ryan broke his leg in three places his freshman year and had a recurring shoulder injury his junior and senior seasons, and Casey had major ankle reconstruction his junior year. They’ve each had to overcome a tough surgery and very long rehab. It is really hard to watch your kid go from doing what they love to being completely sidelined. And it is as mentally challenging as it is physically to go through that. We did our best to keep them focused on completing their rehab and doing what they could to contribute to the team as a leader and simply being a good teammate. Being sidelined gave them a different perspective of their sport, and an appreciation for being fully capable, physically, to play. I also think it made them mentally tougher and gave them a lot of drive to be better when they made their return. We are really proud of how hard they worked to make their comebacks.

Our kids’ successes were developed because of several different factors, and it was only somewhat to do with Bud or me! Initially we got our kids involved in various extracurricular activities when they were younger just to find something that they had fun with. They have participated in some really great youth programs including sports of all kinds, theater, music, Girl and Boy Scouts, running clubs, road races, etc. We expected them to be involved in something that was fun for them that they would stick with, and regardless of what extracurricular it was they had to be involved in something. For our kids they just migrated more towards sports. I think it’s because it’s what our family has always done for fun. We regularly went to college football and basketball games, played driveway basketball, backyard whiffle ball, throwing the football around, signed up for road races, watch them on TV etc - so it was sort of a natural path for them. From the minute they were involved sports, we talked nonstop to our kids a lot about sportsmanship, work ethic, responsibility and dedication. Those are all things they have control over in their lives no matter what age they are. We have always had high expectations for them to be good in those areas rather than being good at their sport. For sure there were times when we were hard on them, or we tried to steer them in a certain direction or pushed them along the way. We always tried to be very conscious about the balancing our expectations for them and the reality of their situation and ability.

We also encouraged them to work hard on their own outside of practices, even at a young age. When they got older and they wanted to earn playing time they put a lot of effort in on their own and they saw it translate on the field and court. And let’s not forget… they were also really fortunate to have had great coaches and teammates along the way that helped shape their experiences and help them be successful, too!

You got involved in coaching youth basketball. Was this something you were anxious to do, or something you had to be talked into doing?  What did you enjoy about coaching youth sports? 

It wasn’t a plan of mine to coach, really ever! It just naturally happened through opportunity. Bud and I had always helped the kids’ teams whenever their youth teams needed it. That’s how I started coaching Morgan’s recreation and travel teams. Initially, I wasn’t very hesitant because it was bitty ball. Starting out there helped, as the expectations were not super high for coaches of 5 and 6 year olds at the time! When the opportunity came up to coach her travel team, I was really hesitant. I wasn’t a star player and I didn’t play all the way through college so I wasn’t sure I should be the one to coach a travel team, but I knew I loved the game and I coached with a friend so that helped make it easier and fun for me.

When when we moved back to Dunlap the second time, a friend of mine and I signed up to coach our girls’ 2nd grade co-ed recreation team together. After that year, his daughter and Bree were old enough to join the Dunlap girls travel basketball program, and we offered to coach. We coached their team in the program from that point on.

One of the things I really enjoyed about coaching youth sports was watching a player get better! And at the youth level that growth can be exponential in one short season. It’s especially great when a player finally “gets it” - that moment when they finally do something they’ve been struggling with or working hard for and you see the excitement on their face. I also really enjoyed coaching our travel team in particular on tournament weekends. The team got to spend a lot of time together, play a lot of basketball and I liked the challenge of coaching against teams we didn’t normally play.

How was it,  and how is it coaching your own daughter?

I’ve coached both of my daughters’ youth travel teams. I’ve always wanted to make sure my girls didn’t feel like I was picking on them when I coached them. Morgan was more receptive to being coached by the others who coached with me, and I was fine with that. It wasn’t that I couldn’t and didn’t coach her, or that she didn’t listen if I did, but there were times when it was more effective for the other coach to communicate for sure. I don’t feel like I had to worry as much about that with Bree. Being the youngest, she was with me while I coached Morgan’s travel team and so it was somewhat normal for her that I was in that position. It also helps that youth sports have short practices just a couple times a week, so I wasn’t coaching them every day.

It was more challenging for Bree and me to navigate our coach/player-mom/daughter relationship at the at the high school level. I wasn’t really worried about her coachability being an issue between us, as she’s pretty coachable and I have been her coach for so many seasons. Our challenge is more because she likes having basketball be her own thing. I try to balance support and coaching the best I can. We are a work in progress, still. This past season, she practiced only with the JV team and I coached alone at the freshman level so most of our time was spent together during Freshmen and JV games. This summer I’ve had to figure out the balance between pushing her to work hard in the off-season as her coach and letting her develop on her own pace as her mom. I do my best to wear my “mom hat” any time we aren’t in the gym but this summer has been a challenge since our gym time is so limited and so very different than what a normal summer would be. I hope it works out for the best for her with me there, and above all that she has a great high school experience.

This past year, you took a job with the school district coaching the freshmen team. From things you posted, it looks like you enjoyed the experience. What did you learn about yourself and about coaching this past year?

I loved coaching my freshman team this past season! They are a really great group of girls. They were very fun - they could be pretty chatty and silly, and there was a lot of dancing and Tik-Tok-making going on - but they were also very respectful and hard working. Many of them I had coached on my travel teams but a few I didn’t know and had not coached before. It was fun getting to know the ones I hadn’t coached before, and watching them get better individually and as a team.

Coaching at the high school level was definitely different than my youth coaching experiences. I like to be prepared for anything and everything (read: I don’t like surprises!) and I’m a really competitive person. I found myself spending way more time thinking about the teams, preparing for practices and thinking about both past and upcoming games than I expected I would! I knew the time commitment would be bigger but I didn’t factor in the challenge of when to turn off the coaching part of my brain and be off the clock, so to speak. I have always taken my travel teams seriously, but there was always a real off-season for me as a youth coach where I didn’t think about the team or season, and didn’t really need to make plans until just before tryouts. I haven’t experienced that mental off-season as a high school coach yet.

I was so happy to hear you had taken a job coaching the freshmen team. I am confident your players will have a good experience playing for you. It seems like it is tough to get young women involved in coaching. What advice would you have for young women who may hesitate to get involved in coaching? 

I was one of just a few women coaches I came across in all of the years I coached recreation and travel basketball. Now I think there are several women coaches starting to come on the scene, from rec leagues all the way up through college, and I am happy to see so many women in coaching positions at the high school level in our area right now. 

I think if someone is interested and they don’t know where to start, starting out in a youth program or as an assistant coach are good ways to get your foot in the door and gain some experience. A head coach at any level will need to take time to plan for practice and games, so if the time commitment is an issue that’s preventing someone from starting then maybe start as an assistant or with a youth recreation program. You don’t have to be a former star or highly skilled player to start coaching or help out. Each level you coach will have a different intensity and slightly different levels of strategy, but the fundamentals of the game that need to be taught are the same. There are a lot of good resources out there to help with preparation. If you’re provided an opportunity to be involved and you have good support around you to do so, I say go for it!

Lastly, when I go to scout in the Peoria area, what is an eating place that I probably haven't heard of that I would enjoy going after a game?

It depends on where you’re scouting and what you're looking for! If you’re checking us out here in Dunlap and you haven’t been there yet, go to Double A’s at the Shoppes. Great pizza, burgers and wings, good atmosphere and great customer service. Knuckles the other way on Knoxville/Rt 40 has great “Quad Cities style” pizza and great customer service as well.

Weaver’s off of War Memorial on Willow Knoll’s/Radnor, Obed and Isaac’s downtown,  Castle’s Patio Inn off of Sheridan/War Memorial are a few locally owned places. There are really too many to list because there are so many really good locally owned, non-chain restaurants here in the Peoria Area!