Molly Watson- Mom & Coach

Molly Watson is the most famous player to play for Galesburg. Everyone in town knew who she was, and she was every little girls favorite player. In junior high and high school, all the girls wanted to be #14. She led teams to Sweet 16, 3rd in State, and 4th in State. Her senior year, the Streaks were undefeated in the regular season and ranked #1 in Illinois in a two class system. I would challenge anyone to find a male or female high school player who had more impact on her teams and on her community. 

She went onto play at DePaul and then professionally overseas. Molly has since be selected into GHS Hall of Fame, and the IBCA Hall of Fame. 

She could score, she could pass, and she could defend. On the fast break teammates had to be ready because she might whip a behind the back pass at anytime. She could do it all!!

 Today she is continuing to do it all. She is a mom, a teacher, and a coach. I am so excited to see her insights into balancing parenting and coaching. And she offers terrific thoughts to our present Streaks about handling the “stay at home.”  

What are the ages of your children?

Luke – 12, Macy - almost 10, Jay - almost 5

What things have you done to encourage your children to be excited about athletics?  

 I would say that athletics is really just a part of our normal, everyday life. Our children have grown up around athletics due to the nature of my job and my husband’s job (Purdue Athletics). In addition, both myself and my husband were student-athletes and we also had fathers who coached a sport. We spend a lot of family time either playing or watching sports. We have talked with our kids about our experiences from when we were younger. We have encouraged our children to try different sports but we let them decide what they want to play. There are so many options for kids today. We try to stick with one sport per child at a time but sometimes there is an overlap between seasons.  

I have had the opportunity to coach our two older kids in a few different sports. I have loved having this opportunity to be their coach.  My husband and I believe that it’s important to encourage our kids to work hard towards their goals but we also believe that they need to have the drive/desire from within themselves to really want to succeed in athletics. We can lead by example and encourage them along the way but we don’t push them to do anything that they aren’t passionate about. We both see the importance and value of participating on a team, staying physically active, working towards a goal and sharing this with those around you. Most importantly, we realize how much fun it is to be involved in athletics.  I really want to make sure that my kids always keep the fun and love of the game at the center of why they choose to play and follow sports. 

What is your present teaching and coaching position? 

 I teach our high school credit Health class (it is mainly made up of 8th-grade students) and 9th grade PE at West Lafayette Jr/Sr High School. I was also the 8th grade and 4th grade girls basketball coach this past season. 

What are three things that you really try to emphasize in your practices? 

 I would say the three main things that I try to focus on are: fundamentals, playing hard, and togetherness/communication.  I really don’t think you can get enough of working on fundamentals.  I was fortunate to have coaches who always preached this as well. Even when I was in college, Coach Bruno always had us working on so many fundamental drills. It really was amazing to see how much this really helped me and my teammates to improve during our four years at DePaul. Coach Bruno is a very detailed coach when it comes to footwork, positioning, stance, etc. Sometimes young players feel that they don’t need to work on the fundamentals once they reach a certain age. I love being able to tell my players that the fundamental drills we are working on were drills that I did with other scholarship level players on a daily basis. 

I am always emphasizing playing hard at practice. I feel like this was ingrained in my head during my days at GHS. We always took pride in working harder and playing harder than any of our opponents. Playing hard really has more to do with mental toughness than physical toughness. It’s having the ability to push yourself further than you ever thought you could. I always tell my players that it doesn’t take talent to work hard. It really is just mental toughness and focus. 

Togetherness and communication are such a big part of everything that I try to teach as a basketball coach. I feel like every drill, every play that we do requires some sort of communication. It is also so important off the court. Communication is so vital to team cohesion and playing together as one unit. I have been involved in many different basketball programs as a player and as a coach. I have seen some of the most talented teams underachieve because they did not communicate and play together. I have also seen teams who maybe didn’t have as high of a talent level overachieve because they were willing to buy in to communicating and working together as one. 

What has been your greatest satisfaction coaching?

 I really love “the process” or the journey of player and team development. I love working individually with players on their fundamental skills. I get really excited when I can help a player tweak their shot or a dribble move and they can finally feel the difference themselves. I love it when a player realizes that all of those hours and hours of repetition are finally paying off as they knock down shots or drive past an opponent in a game. This is where players “buy-in” and learn to set goals and develop their work ethic. I also find great satisfaction in discovering what motivates each individual player. I am just as much fascinated by the psychology of sports as I am the physical side of it. 

Then the ultimate challenge is bringing all of these individual talents together to form one unit. To me, this is like putting a puzzle together. Each season has its own unique challenge as the dynamics can be so different from year to year. I love working on our weaknesses and identifying our strengths as a group. Every coach hopes to be playing their best basketball by the end of the season. It’s amazing to look back at the end of the season and see how far you have grown as a group. 

Ultimately, I love having the opportunity to impact each of my player’s lives. I love helping people discover the best in themselves as they work towards their goals. I also just love being a part of a team and building relationships and trust during our time together.  

 What advice would you have for a young woman who wants to go into coaching? 

 I would say, go for it! It’s so very rewarding to coach. We need more females to get involved in coaching. There really is a need for good quality coaches at all levels of play. I would encourage young women to get involved as early as possible. If you think that you might be interested in a career in education or coaching/athletics, start early to build your resume and gain valuable experience before you even graduate from college. I was so fortunate to have coaching experiences like this as a teenager. I am so thankful to Coach Massey for giving me the opportunity to work Streaks basketball camps and to Coach Heimann for the opportunity to work the Knox College Basketball Camps. I was also able to work camps alongside Coach Bruno at DePaul. I have so many great memories working in these camps. I also realize now that I was so lucky to learn from coaching legends at such a young age. Even if you don’t plan on teaching or coaching as a career, coaching in youth sports is a great way to get involved in your community! 

How hard is it to be a mom and also be a coach? 

It is definitely a balancing act! Whether you are a parent or not, coaching is a sacrifice of your own time. The great thing about coaching is that there are so many different levels of time commitment. Being a mom is the most important job that I do. I love the fact that I have been able to spend a lot of time with my kids as they grow up. I always dreamed of coaching at the college level but once I became a mom, I realized that I wasn’t willing to sacrifice that time with my kids while they were really young. As my kids have gotten older, I have slowly increased the time that I am willing to spend away from them to coach. The best part is that all of my kids are now old enough to come with me to practices and games. I don’t feel quite as guilty coaching when they get to come along and join in on the fun! None of this would be possible without the support of my husband. He has been so incredibly helpful this past year as I jumped back into teaching and coaching full-time. It really does take a team effort to support coaching in your family. 

Another positive side of coaching with young children is that my kids get to spend time around some amazing role models. My daughter in particular has had so much fun getting to hang out with the junior high and high school girls basketball players. I really couldn’t ask for better role models for my kids. I have been so fortunate to coach some very talented players but also players of high character and morals. I couldn’t ask for a better environment for my kids. 

How can schools and administration help young women stay in coaching? 

I would say that the most important thing they can do is to be accommodating towards young women and their families. I am fortunate to be a part of an athletic department that is very kid-friendly. Many coaches bring their kids to practices, workouts, and games. It can get very expensive to have to pay for babysitting when you practice every night. 

I have a great example of something our Athletic Director did this year to accommodate me as a coach. He knew that I was coaching two teams at one time so he offered to have my 4th grade team practice and use the junior high facilities immediately following my 8th grade practices. This was extremely helpful to me and my family so that I didn’t have to waste time traveling to another gym. Our youth teams do not usually get to practice in our junior high facilities so I was so thankful that he was willing to bend this rule to make my life a little easier.

What advice would you have the present Streaks as they have high goals in basketball but are going thru "stay at home?" 

 I would tell the current Streaks to only worry about what you can control at this point. You can control your attitude, your work ethic, and your togetherness as a team. It’s easy to make up excuses, to be negative about the fact that you can’t practice with your teammates, but what good does that do anybody? Great teams and great players all have the ability to persevere when times are tough and they figure out a way to get it done. 

This is a great opportunity for the captains and leaders of your team to really go to work. It might be difficult, but making the extra effort to reach out to your teammates to see how they are doing and to make sure they are working towards their goals will all be worth it in the end. Hold each other accountable and remind each other on a daily basis that you are all in this together! You only get one shot at being a Silver Streak so make the most of it! 

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes when I was a player: Somewhere, someone is practicing and when you meet her in head to head competition, she will beat you.