Sabrina Salov
What do you think you'd like to say to yourself? Like today, as a coach to your former self? And what do you think? What are the values do you think that you've gained or maybe that have changed since that time?
Mary Shimko
It's a loaded question, Sabrina. That's a good one.
Mary Shimko
I would say if I were to talk to my younger self, that to be patient, I think that in life you expect things to happen right away. And you know that if you work hard, it'll be you'll get to where you want to be and it'll be smooth and it'll be seamless in every transition. I think I would tell myself to be patient in all of those experiences and to sit in and lean in to, you know, experiencing the challenges of being a player of, you know, not always you know, things going the right way, whether that's, you know, the ball not going in the back of the net or not getting the job
Mary Shimko
That I wanted right away. It's, you know, learning how to become an assistant and be a support system and learn the values that are important to become a head coach, to lead a program in the right direction. I'd say be patient there and really be present there because in those moments, is where I learned what was important to me.
Mary Shimko
You know, like I learned that, you know, earlier on you're chatting about our conversation, your sophomore year, like if I wasn't present, if I wasn't like, you know, here in that moment and I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, how can I better myself. Yeah. You know, I think that's that that leads to a really lonely journey.
Mary Shimko
And so I would say, like, continuing to find my values along the way. And I think you know, relationships as like the care and the, the, the delicacy of relationships has been really important to me. You know, always I'm a big person in hard work. Like, I think it requires what we do in life does require some hard work and trust.
Mary Shimko
I think trust and we've talked a lot about trust is really important. And I think accountability, you know, accountability goes such a long way. You know, being accountable for my players, being accountable for my staff, having my players hold me accountable. I think it's a two-way street and I think, you know, what this journey has taught me is, is to be patient, lean into those values and lean into those relationships.