Speaker 1: Appoja Production.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name's beck Woodbine and welcome to Tenderness for Nurses.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for the person that I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to be, so I hit it and parked it for
Speaker 1: Nellie for years.
Speaker 3: We always have free will, we always get to choose.
Speaker 1: We are autonomous. Hi.
Speaker 2: Everyone, Welcome to Tenderness for Nurses. With a little bit
Speaker 2: of a twist. I'm here today interviewing my daughter Chloe. Hey.
Speaker 1: Hello, I've come all the way from a straight to
Speaker 1: Boston to see Chloe.
Speaker 2: But while we're here, I wanted to have a chat
Speaker 2: with her about resilience. And it's just going to be
Speaker 2: about a story, well not so much a story and
Speaker 2: instead of that happening in Chloe's life and she could
Speaker 2: have made a decision to go either way. And I
Speaker 2: felt it was a really great conversation to have around
Speaker 2: resilience but also how to manage your feelings moving forward.
Speaker 2: So what year was a Cloe that you decided to
Speaker 2: leave water Polo in Australia.
Speaker 3: It was around I want to say twenty sixteen twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: I was on the Australian squad at the time and
Speaker 3: was doing a lot of training as well as QS,
Speaker 3: which is the Queensland Institute's squad. So I was going
Speaker 3: back and forth between training there, training for my club, training.
Speaker 1: Doing Australian camps, and then eventually.
Speaker 3: I made the decision to move to the US and
Speaker 3: played America. Played water polo in America. I started at
Speaker 3: Hartwood College in Upstate, New York, and then I returned
Speaker 3: home during winter break, back home at summer break here
Speaker 3: for college, and I continue to try and make this
Speaker 3: Australian team for the world.
Speaker 1: And that's when sort of shit hit the fan a
Speaker 1: little bit. Everything for didn't very quickly.
Speaker 3: I came back and I didn't really feel as welcome
Speaker 3: as I would have thought into the previous squads and
Speaker 3: teams that I was training with and moving at the time.
Speaker 3: Moving to the US sort of I want to say,
Speaker 3: put you in a black list. They didn't really want
Speaker 3: the athletes going to the US to play water polo.
Speaker 3: They wanted you to stay in your home state and
Speaker 3: train for the teams. So by me leaving to come
Speaker 3: play in.
Speaker 1: The US, I was almost like fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3: Chances, and I was giving up my chance on making
Speaker 3: Australian squads will continue to make these teams and squads.
Speaker 1: Why did you decide to go to the US and
Speaker 1: apply for a.
Speaker 3: Scholarship, Well, initially it was that I it was sort
Speaker 3: of always the dream.
Speaker 1: I remember actually being on your screen, Cipher. It was
Speaker 1: always the dream.
Speaker 3: And then I actually did a year of university in Australia,
Speaker 3: and then I just hated it.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't what I expected.
Speaker 3: And I think I really wanted to be able to
Speaker 3: enjoy water polo and study at the same time, and
Speaker 3: a bonus and not having any student debt when I graduate.
Speaker 3: So I started just applying to different universities, reaching out
Speaker 3: to coaches see what I.
Speaker 1: Could get, and a lot of people just never messaged
Speaker 1: me back. But I did have.
Speaker 3: One coach who reached out and offered me a full
Speaker 3: scholarship up at Hartwick in New York, and I was
Speaker 3: quite happy to stay there for four years, but unfortunately my.
Speaker 1: Program got cut about a month into turning up to
Speaker 1: the university.
Speaker 3: So I made the move to Salem University, which is
Speaker 3: in West Virginia, of all places, where I met a
Speaker 3: very six of us six players. A coach was a
Speaker 3: new program, so we were building it from the ground up,
Speaker 3: but making that move.
Speaker 1: From a Division one water polo team to a Division
Speaker 1: two sort of strong.
Speaker 3: Some notes in the coaches back home head that I
Speaker 3: wasn't good enough anymore because I wasn't at that Division
Speaker 3: one standard. Although for those who may not know, Division
Speaker 3: one water polo and Division two water polo in the US,
Speaker 3: we all played during the season the same teams.
Speaker 1: We interacted tournaments.
Speaker 3: The only difference is when it comes to championship time,
Speaker 3: you're just playing Division two school for other than Division
Speaker 3: one schools. But if you win that championship, you end
Speaker 3: up going into the NC DOUBLEA tournament, which is fagain
Speaker 3: like any team can make it in if you win
Speaker 3: your championship. So then when we eventually made it into
Speaker 3: NC Double a's, we were playing I think the first
Speaker 3: half like Wagner and the next was UCLA. So we
Speaker 3: were playing those big teams regardless of whether we were
Speaker 3: a D one.
Speaker 1: School or a D two school.
Speaker 2: You came home that summer break and you still have
Speaker 2: a scholarship with QAS, and you went one night to
Speaker 2: training and I remember you came home, well, I'm going
Speaker 2: to say in hysterics you were so upset you could
Speaker 2: hardly talk. You were just devastated with how you were treated.
Speaker 2: Do you want to explain what happened?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I initially coming back from the US, I'm
Speaker 3: pretty sure I got off the plane and went to
Speaker 3: practice that day, my first session. There was a new
Speaker 3: head coach in the program at the time, and he
Speaker 3: pulled me aside at the end of practice and basically
Speaker 3: said I wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1: Anymore and that I wouldn't make the world team.
Speaker 3: That I was trying so desperately to make through all
Speaker 3: the camps and stuff and taking time off school and
Speaker 3: away from my education to go to these week camps,
Speaker 3: two week camps, three week camps, like they were a
Speaker 3: huge time off we were having to take from university.
Speaker 1: In all and at my cost, and all students had
Speaker 1: to do it.
Speaker 3: So I came out, I was told I wasn't good enough,
Speaker 3: and then I just continued to put my head down
Speaker 3: and continued going to training.
Speaker 1: I was determined to prove everyone wrong at that.
Speaker 2: Point that can I just ask a question, though they
Speaker 2: thought you were good enough here at the States, Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: I thought you were a really good stund forward.
Speaker 1: Yes. When I did eventually have to move universities.
Speaker 3: Because of my program getting canceled, there were a lot
Speaker 3: of teams trying to snatch me up.
Speaker 1: So coming home and sort of.
Speaker 3: Getting that shock go, oh, you're good enough anymore was
Speaker 3: kind of a shock in that I was good enough
Speaker 3: over here? Why am I not good enough in Australia? Anyways?
Speaker 3: I kept going to training. Pushed me to go to training,
Speaker 3: even though I'm pretty sure every day it was like
Speaker 3: the last thing I wanted to do, and it would
Speaker 3: be at the point where I was in hysterics because
Speaker 3: I didn't want to go to training, but I continued
Speaker 3: to go because I had to. I had this desired
Speaker 3: to almost prove people wrong that I am good enough
Speaker 3: and I am determined to make this team.
Speaker 1: Why didn't you want to go? Was it because of
Speaker 1: the culture? Was it really toxic? Culture?
Speaker 3: Wasn't the best, But there was just so much like
Speaker 3: anxiety around the fact that I was going to a
Speaker 3: place where the coaches didn't think I was good enough.
Speaker 1: In situations like this, when you're trying.
Speaker 3: To make a national team, it can also I'm not
Speaker 3: saying it did, but it can stem down into the
Speaker 3: athletes as well, because you know they want to be
Speaker 3: liked by the coaches and they want to because they
Speaker 3: want to be picked. And if you're not liked by
Speaker 3: a coach, I mean, that cuts your chance of making
Speaker 3: a team in half, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it's a little bit tricky and trying to find
Speaker 1: the right balance of whether do I want to go
Speaker 1: to practice and.
Speaker 3: Continue this like to make this of squad or am
Speaker 3: I willing to take a step back? But then my
Speaker 3: chances are even less, even less, And if they really
Speaker 3: want me, maybe they'll pick me up down the track.
Speaker 2: Do you think they'd taken any time to look at
Speaker 2: how you played, because you can't watch all the games.
Speaker 1: That's what I did in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: Definitely not.
Speaker 3: But I used to send my game schedules to coaches
Speaker 3: and send links to where they could watch me play.
Speaker 3: So I don't really know whether they did watch me
Speaker 3: play or they didn't watch me play, but I wasn't good.
Speaker 2: Enough in their eyes, Okay, So, and I just want
Speaker 2: to say, this isn't going to be a bitch fest
Speaker 2: or this is just discussing I suppose sport and management
Speaker 2: of athletes in Australia, and I'm sure it happens elsewhere,
Speaker 2: but also how Chloe managed what she's about to talk
Speaker 2: to us about.
Speaker 1: So what happened that night?
Speaker 3: So I had a one day at practice. I turned
Speaker 3: up and continue doing what I'm doing, and we were
Speaker 3: working on an exercise and was doing what I thought
Speaker 3: I was told to do. However, I apparently did it
Speaker 3: wrong and I had a coach on still school still
Speaker 3: scored the girl how to coach stand on pool deck
Speaker 3: and absolutely screeching lungs out at me. It was You're stupid,
Speaker 3: You're useless, Why are you here?
Speaker 1: YadA yah yah, went on and on and on, and
Speaker 1: I do I mean, there's fifty people in the pool
Speaker 1: at this point, and I was an adults around. There
Speaker 1: were a handful, yes, were the other coaches listening.
Speaker 3: There were other coaches, but a lot of them, from
Speaker 3: my knowledge, were coaching other athletes as well.
Speaker 1: So who knows who saw it and who didn't.
Speaker 3: But I do know that the athletes in the pool
Speaker 3: at the time I was playing with all witness step
Speaker 3: because people had made comments to me after it had happened.
Speaker 3: So as I'm being young and I'm just swimming back
Speaker 3: up the pool doing backstonone. Yes, coach, Yes, coach, you know,
Speaker 3: nodding my head, not really saying anything because it's not
Speaker 3: worth the argument at this point to try and improve
Speaker 3: my point.
Speaker 1: When this particular coach.
Speaker 4: Was he didn't like he didn't like me, and was
Speaker 4: deemed them a wrong so, you know, nodding my head,
Speaker 4: just acknowledging what he had said, but chose not to
Speaker 4: talk back to him, which well, at the time was
Speaker 4: the right thing to.
Speaker 3: Do, but well I thought that would be the respectful
Speaker 3: thing to do, yes, but considering I didn't give him
Speaker 3: an invite back. He then proceeded to screen even louder
Speaker 3: and kicked me out of the pool, kicked me out
Speaker 3: of the training session, told me to leave the facility,
Speaker 3: don't come back.
Speaker 1: He made a very personal level.
Speaker 3: He was very personal, and I remember swimming to the
Speaker 3: side of the pool crying, and then a couple of
Speaker 3: the other girls were They were being lovely, they were
Speaker 3: being very company.
Speaker 1: But it was also for me the point of I'm
Speaker 1: not going back.
Speaker 4: Like I hated, I don't want to play water polo
Speaker 4: any but like it was, you wanted to play water
Speaker 4: pol water.
Speaker 3: Polo, but I didn't want to go back into that
Speaker 3: environment and be around that particular coach and all the
Speaker 3: coaches that were involved in that organization, and you were
Speaker 3: sitting on pool Dick with another young lady that had
Speaker 3: also been abused by.
Speaker 1: The second Yes, yes, and she was commiserating with you.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't the first.
Speaker 3: That it had happened to, but I eventually was the
Speaker 3: first person to speak up about it. So a lot
Speaker 3: of people just put their head down and let him
Speaker 3: continue to do this. But I had asked to sit
Speaker 3: down and have a meeting with the head coach and
Speaker 3: a mediator, and she came as well, and I went
Speaker 3: in with.
Speaker 1: My list of questions because I've written all down, and
Speaker 1: I asked questions and.
Speaker 3: The answers back, I guess weren't really what I was
Speaker 3: hoping for, but I got answers. And one of the
Speaker 3: big ones for me was when I came back, like
Speaker 3: I was still on a QAS scholarship, so I still
Speaker 3: had access to the QS gym and the QS gym
Speaker 3: sessions and all the girls who three times a week,
Speaker 3: and I had asked the coach if I could attend
Speaker 3: these sessions and he said no, and I was like,
Speaker 3: why can't I He was like, no, you just can't
Speaker 3: yet another girl who was coming back from the US
Speaker 3: in the same situation I was, had been given the access.
Speaker 1: To go to these gym sessions.
Speaker 3: So in my meeting, you know, I'd brought up stuff
Speaker 3: like that, like why does she get to go and
Speaker 3: I don't get to go even though we're on the
Speaker 3: same scholarship and we were both in the US, so
Speaker 3: we've both come back for break. So there was a
Speaker 3: lot of sort of back and forth and trying to
Speaker 3: figure out why me, why wasn't IV given the same
Speaker 3: opportunities as everyone else to try.
Speaker 1: And meet this Australian team. You came home that night,
Speaker 1: you were so upset.
Speaker 2: And then the next morning we spoke and I said
Speaker 2: to you, we can take this further, because this is
Speaker 2: inappropriate to have a grown man screaming at a young
Speaker 2: woman who was standing there in her togs. No one
Speaker 2: came to defend you on the side of a pool.
Speaker 2: It's just completely inappropriate. And so I said to Chloe,
Speaker 2: I will get involved because this is really wrong, but
Speaker 2: you need to understand that this will be the end
Speaker 2: of your any chance of getting on the Australian team.
Speaker 1: And we were right. We spoke up, they had the meeting.
Speaker 2: They didn't take me, see though I had, I had
Speaker 2: to threaten to get lawyers involved before they even responded
Speaker 2: to the email message.
Speaker 1: And it's at this point my anxiety was.
Speaker 3: So through the roof that like the thought of going
Speaker 3: to practice like I was in like serious shaken, Like
Speaker 3: I couldn't even drive to practice. I used to have
Speaker 3: to get friends to take me because I was shaking
Speaker 3: so badly. I couldn't get behind the wheel to drive
Speaker 3: myself to what I'd always driven myself to, you know,
Speaker 3: where I loved.
Speaker 1: So it was a definite. It was tough. I had
Speaker 1: the meeting, and then maybe a week later.
Speaker 3: I got cut from the program, which was kind of expected,
Speaker 3: but we knew it was We knew it was coming,
Speaker 3: and you know, I took that on the chin and
Speaker 3: I turned up to practice the next day and then
Speaker 3: the coach at the time actually turned around me and went, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm surprised he even showed up today.
Speaker 1: Oh, very got cut.
Speaker 3: And at that point, you know, now I'm bought to
Speaker 3: tears again. You know, I've just been cut from my dream.
Speaker 3: I have all the girls around me who have just
Speaker 3: made the team, Like it's you're trying to hide your
Speaker 3: emotion to not and be happy for your colleague, you
Speaker 3: with your friends, and you don't want it.
Speaker 1: I didn't want the sympathy for being cut.
Speaker 3: Like I knew I had water polo in the US stell,
Speaker 3: but it was pretty heartbreaking to get cut from something
Speaker 3: you had been training so long before.
Speaker 2: It was an interesting thing when I said that letter
Speaker 2: and I was ignored and then threatened to take it
Speaker 2: to the Queensland government because it's a Queensland government run program.
Speaker 2: Then there were action stations, and you and I both
Speaker 2: know that there are certain coaches that have had numerous
Speaker 2: complaints put about, like well maybe not complaints put in,
Speaker 2: but we also knew that there were so many kids
Speaker 2: that had been bullied by a certain coaches, screened by
Speaker 2: certain coaches, and these coaches just kept coming back and
Speaker 2: coming back and coming back, and everyone turning a blind diet,
Speaker 2: and no parent had put in a formal complaint because
Speaker 2: everyone was worried the kids would get dropped from either
Speaker 2: QS or their programs, or Queensland teams.
Speaker 1: Or OUs teams.
Speaker 2: So for you and I to put in a form complaint,
Speaker 2: even though it wasn't taken seriously at first.
Speaker 1: Was quite significant. And don't get me.
Speaker 3: Wrong, I'm all for coaches being passionate and encouraging their
Speaker 3: team members and if we're doing something wrong, tell us
Speaker 3: we're doing something wrong. But its attacks on people to
Speaker 3: make them feel less than they are is where I
Speaker 3: have an issue with it. How was your anxiety around
Speaker 3: water Pillow when you came back?
Speaker 1: It was a little rough at first.
Speaker 3: I had to sort of figure out ways to manage
Speaker 3: my anxiety and stress. But I did have a really
Speaker 3: good group of team members and like a really great coach,
Speaker 3: although at the beginning we didn't quite get along. But
Speaker 3: I also think that was a little bit of from
Speaker 3: what I had just experienced with my past coach. So
Speaker 3: I took them a little bit of time, and we
Speaker 3: definitely had some blow ups on pull deck. And if
Speaker 3: you ask him now, I mean write or die, I
Speaker 3: mean a good great friends, great friends.
Speaker 1: And we'd go for war with each other because we.
Speaker 3: Went through so much as a coach player relationship, not
Speaker 3: getting along at first, so then sort of coming to
Speaker 3: the understanding of one another to then be able.
Speaker 1: To win two championships. So how did you and coach
Speaker 1: work out your differences?
Speaker 3: But well, we had some big blow ups on pullback,
Speaker 3: but for us, it just came down to sitting down
Speaker 3: and having a conversation.
Speaker 1: To know.
Speaker 3: Why we are the way we are. I guess sort
Speaker 3: of what led me to coming to Salem. And when
Speaker 3: I first went to say them, like, I wasn't particularly.
Speaker 1: Happy about it.
Speaker 3: My program and dream School had just been cut. I'd
Speaker 3: been dropped from OZ, you know, I was coming back
Speaker 3: toward Apollo from I guess, from like a community that
Speaker 3: I felt didn't want me to then having to start afresh,
Speaker 3: you know, going to make new friends and a new
Speaker 3: coach and your you know, I had to switch degrees.
Speaker 3: I wasn't able to continue what I was doing at
Speaker 3: heart weight. I had to change to something different at
Speaker 3: the Salem because it wasn't offered. And do you think
Speaker 3: you had a chip on your shoulder maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's a tough one. It just you were certainly guarded,
Speaker 3: definitely guarded, and I just sort of wanted to put
Speaker 3: my head down and play, and plus.
Speaker 1: Like, this is what was paying for my education.
Speaker 3: So for me, I wanted to continue to play to
Speaker 3: earn a degree, and that was a big part of
Speaker 3: it for me.
Speaker 1: You just wanted. You just loved it over in the state.
Speaker 1: I did a college system and the fun and the parties,
Speaker 1: and I loved it.
Speaker 2: So how any conference and non conference like in season games,
Speaker 2: have you played anywhere between one hundred and twenty one
Speaker 2: and fifty games? So at that time you had when
Speaker 2: you dropped from the old squad, you would have had
Speaker 2: way more game experience than anyone on that team.
Speaker 1: I mean that was early on in my career.
Speaker 3: In the US, but I still probably would have had
Speaker 3: thirty to forty games under your.
Speaker 1: Belt under my balllet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you were playing teams like Brown Wagner, my
Speaker 2: owner Harvard, l.
Speaker 1: Are you California teams? San Frante's San Francisco.
Speaker 3: Teams out in Florida. I mean we played everyone. We
Speaker 3: sat pack into a twelve passenger seat then and off
Speaker 3: you go.
Speaker 1: Off we go.
Speaker 2: Resilience wise, what did you learn from that experience when
Speaker 2: you went back to Australia.
Speaker 1: I think for me, like I could have left it
Speaker 1: all and walked away and.
Speaker 3: Happily just done university in Australia, but I would have
Speaker 3: had a totally different life and career track than I
Speaker 3: do now. I think like I came back, and at first,
Speaker 3: you know, it took me a while to get back
Speaker 3: into my love for this sport that's given me a
Speaker 3: whole lot.
Speaker 1: But once I had built back, I guess.
Speaker 3: It was the strength to be happy in the pool
Speaker 3: and be happy to do things.
Speaker 1: I fell in love with the sport again.
Speaker 3: But it sort of just shows I think my experience
Speaker 3: easily demon streets if you can walk away from anything
Speaker 3: in life, but there's typically going to be some sort
Speaker 3: of other path. Potentially, it's still involving what you love.
Speaker 3: It just may not be exactly what you expected it
Speaker 3: to be. And I mean, so, what's your involvement with
Speaker 3: water followed?
Speaker 2: Now you've finished all your study, you're living in Boston,
Speaker 2: you're working.
Speaker 3: So now I commentate for Brown University for the men's
Speaker 3: and the women's water a pollo and I do all
Speaker 3: the commentating on ESPN for them, and I also help
Speaker 3: out at mit SO Massachusetts Institute's.
Speaker 1: Technology and I do.
Speaker 3: Like the game clocks and help run the games essentially,
Speaker 3: so I give back a little bit. I referee here
Speaker 3: and there on the side, but refereeing in the US
Speaker 3: is pretty intent with all the coaches and it can
Speaker 3: get sort of spiked my anxiety. So I figured out
Speaker 3: what I can do that still makes me give back
Speaker 3: to the sport. Let's we get back to the sport
Speaker 3: and enjoy it rather than being in an uncomfortable situation.
Speaker 2: That so you find if a coach gets world up
Speaker 2: and starts screaming at you as a.
Speaker 1: Riff, you find it quite triggering.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it can be, and you know it can sort
Speaker 3: of trigger your anxiety a little bit with you're being
Speaker 3: absolutely screened out because you made a terrible call or something.
Speaker 3: So like I coach more high school than I do college,
Speaker 3: just based on the intensity of the games.
Speaker 1: But it's a way I hand it back to the sport.
Speaker 3: And do you put that anxiety around being screamed it
Speaker 3: on pool deck?
Speaker 1: Back to that incident, a qas.
Speaker 5: I think it definitely contributed or it contributes to my
Speaker 5: anxiety and being yelled at. Look, that's I think in
Speaker 5: my mind that is the main triggering events that happened.
Speaker 3: There may have been others, but that one is always
Speaker 3: sort of in the forefront of your mind of your mind.
Speaker 1: So have you moved on.
Speaker 6: From it, Like do you think about it and going
Speaker 6: we wish I had a handle it differently or are
Speaker 6: you proud of the fact that you kept showing up?
Speaker 1: Yes, you cropped it. You got dropped from everything, but
Speaker 1: we pretty much assumed that that would be the case.
Speaker 2: And you know, you're opportunities with you know, maybe making
Speaker 2: an Australian team were shaftered. Like do you I know
Speaker 2: you knew quite a few of the girls in the
Speaker 2: pool for the Olympics, and you know, I sat up
Speaker 2: and watched them and felt such pride and was so
Speaker 2: excited for those girls that made it. I'm also now
Speaker 2: a lot of girls that didn't make that team and
Speaker 2: it was heartbreaking for them.
Speaker 1: How did you feel watching them at the Olympics?
Speaker 2: Did you feel like I did, just really super excited
Speaker 2: for them, crowd so excited and proud and big.
Speaker 1: Ripples an amazing coach.
Speaker 3: I know how hard those girls work because I went
Speaker 3: through it when I was younger. I understand the process
Speaker 3: of how much time and energy and effort goes into it.
Speaker 3: And like a lot of those girls did a year
Speaker 3: or two years in the US, so they've also got
Speaker 3: to experience that US college life from maybe you know,
Speaker 3: two years or six months or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But I have no regrets in going back.
Speaker 3: I wish they I think the biggest thing I wish
Speaker 3: I could redo is.
Speaker 1: Push harder to get an answer of why.
Speaker 3: I mean, I sat down and I had meetings with them,
Speaker 3: but I sort of just accepted the response that I
Speaker 3: was given instead of pushing to actually uncomfort the truth
Speaker 3: and not this bullshit excuse of getting they would have.
Speaker 3: But I mean when I see them on pool deck
Speaker 3: these days, I still acknowledge and say, Hi, Hey, you going,
Speaker 3: And whether they choose to eva did me or walk away, that's.
Speaker 1: Up to them. And that's what happened last name, and
Speaker 1: that's what happened last time.
Speaker 3: And I mean a lot of the coaches I still
Speaker 3: have great connections with, and my partner he's a coach
Speaker 3: over at Brown University, so we've been able to help
Speaker 3: him build some connections with Australian coaches for recruiting purposes
Speaker 3: and getting students over to the US. I just think
Speaker 3: coming to the US, for anyone who wants to do it,
Speaker 3: it's such a great opportunity and if you do get
Speaker 3: the opportunities of blessing, because not many people can say
Speaker 3: that I know, you know they did college in the US.
Speaker 3: They played their sport they love, they walked away without
Speaker 3: any dubt and got.
Speaker 1: An amazing job and gone amazing job from it.
Speaker 6: So it's so if you had as phony parents or
Speaker 6: you know, young people that are listening to the podcast
Speaker 6: about you know, maybe wanting to get their kids to
Speaker 6: the States, or you know, or they themselves have maybe
Speaker 6: done a year of nursing but play.
Speaker 2: An amazing sport and you know, want to come over
Speaker 2: and finish their nursing over in America, what would you
Speaker 2: recommend they do as a pathway?
Speaker 3: Mine was a typical and that I we didn't want
Speaker 3: to pay for a recruiter. They were at the time
Speaker 3: crazy expensive for being the middle man, so we just
Speaker 3: skipped the middle man and I tried to do it myself,
Speaker 3: which I was very fortunate enough to get that opportunity.
Speaker 1: Where the other Aussies that I played, or I know
Speaker 1: that they did.
Speaker 3: Go through recruiters, So you always have the recruiter way
Speaker 3: and they'll help.
Speaker 1: You find a university and find the right fit.
Speaker 2: I did it, but all saw you, your utwee coach,
Speaker 2: saw you play over a campags.
Speaker 1: So I had that route as well.
Speaker 3: So I had been emailing and he'd actually just seen
Speaker 3: me play, and.
Speaker 1: That's how that happened.
Speaker 3: And then what I transferred it was through universe alumni connections.
Speaker 3: But I know that there are a lot of coaches
Speaker 3: who are now flying over to tournaments, whether it's.
Speaker 1: For water polo or swim or.
Speaker 3: Basketball, whatever it is. And the coaches are coming into
Speaker 3: tournaments these days, where back when I was a freshman,
Speaker 3: that wasn't.
Speaker 1: Really a thing.
Speaker 3: Of coaches from the US coming to international competitions. I
Speaker 3: think the easiest way is through a recruiter, but there
Speaker 3: are other means of getting over here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you just span at their emails and sent
Speaker 2: them video footage and yeah, I mean every coach.
Speaker 3: If you go to their website, like the university website,
Speaker 3: into the athletics page and onto the team, there's always
Speaker 3: the coaches listed and nine times out of ten years
Speaker 3: an email address attached to that. I used to email
Speaker 3: like the head coach, systant coaches, volunteers, like anyone, anyone,
Speaker 3: I didn't matter whose email I could find. I was
Speaker 3: sending them an individual email, trying to make it as
Speaker 3: personal as they could.
Speaker 1: At the time, I don't think they even had footage.
Speaker 3: I just had a like an athletic resume and a
Speaker 3: passionate design. I used to just once a week email
Speaker 3: the coaches until there would get a response from it. It
Speaker 3: was hey, we're not interested, or cretty close whatever, But
Speaker 3: a few hit and then I was able to sit
Speaker 3: down and have conversations with them over like Oka at
Speaker 3: the time it was skype, you know, sit down to chat,
Speaker 3: see if it's a good fit, and then onto negotiating scholarships.
Speaker 1: And I would just say the coaches, I want a
Speaker 1: fool ride, I'm not coming, and they hit in London,
Speaker 1: but they love center forward. It's over here. The focused
Speaker 1: on a lot of my.
Speaker 3: Position is really wanted in the pool, and I was
Speaker 3: exactly what teams were looking for. And so I think
Speaker 3: you need to find a team that is looking for
Speaker 3: what you can provide or what you would excel at me.
Speaker 3: It was my size and my strength was what I
Speaker 3: was really good at, and you know, playing that center
Speaker 3: board position. But other teams may not want a center
Speaker 3: board and they just want super fast, quick on.
Speaker 1: The hand with the ball players.
Speaker 3: So you just got to find your niche what coaches
Speaker 3: are looking for.
Speaker 2: So I suppose the big takeaway from this is that
Speaker 2: sometimes there are consequences to standing up for what's right.
Speaker 1: However, I don't regret it. I don't know, you don't.
Speaker 2: Because if it had to be done, and maybe you know,
Speaker 2: through the right education and counseling whatever, you know that
Speaker 2: coach or coaches may coach people differently or be aware
Speaker 2: of the impact their words and actions have on other planes.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing I can hope for is that
Speaker 1: when they go to yell at someone or.
Speaker 3: I'm sort of sitting in the back of their mind
Speaker 3: of how is this actually going to impact impact that person?
Speaker 1: And all I can hope is that when they you know,
Speaker 1: for all I know, it may have happened again, it
Speaker 1: may not have happened again.
Speaker 3: But I just wanted to be that person to stop
Speaker 3: the cycle of bullying. Bullying, I guess in sport, in
Speaker 3: particularly in that environment that I was in, and I
Speaker 3: know once I stepped away, a lot of other girls
Speaker 3: who had experienced the same things started to speak out
Speaker 3: about it, and there was a bit of a change
Speaker 3: in leadership and protein stuff and how they ran things.
Speaker 3: So there was a little bit of change. But like
Speaker 3: a lot of the girls I played with no longer play.
Speaker 3: They maybe do masters, but they're not involved in curing
Speaker 3: or other weave land teams anymore.
Speaker 7: So I like to think that maybe maybe you're standing
Speaker 7: up and getting people the courage to stand up for
Speaker 7: what was written to stop this mistreatment among young athletes.
Speaker 3: Because it's really at that point you're doing what you
Speaker 3: love and you love to do it, so having someone
Speaker 3: make you.
Speaker 1: Not love what you love anymore is with stuff.
Speaker 2: Absolutely well, thanks Cloth for chatting with me. I hope
Speaker 2: you guys have got something out of this. It wasn't
Speaker 2: like I said, to have a bit of a breakfast.
Speaker 2: It was just really that sometimes there are some really
Speaker 2: tough situations in your life and you can choose to
Speaker 2: deal with it or not, and that's okay either way.
Speaker 1: It's up to you.
Speaker 2: But I think for that great greater fulfillment and to
Speaker 2: move forward in your life, at some stage, I guess
Speaker 2: it has to be dealt with.
Speaker 1: So thanks. I asked the usual have love mahold I
Speaker 2: Would you have aged jumping scars be escape