Making an impact
SLIPPERY ROCK — The chaos for Amber McFeely Osborn is always controlled. While she helps coach the Slippery Rock girls basketball team, she also plans her off-court strategy.
With four kids under 4 years old, Osborn has to. She knows what time the kids have to leave the game, including travel time, to be back home in time for bed.
Osborn knows what treats to pack for the game, what drawing books to bring and what bottle has to be packed. People have told her many times they are amazed how she does it.
Osborn laughs that off.
“I tease people whenever they tell me they don’t know how I do it,” Osborn said. “I don’t know, either. It’s a circus.”
Osborn, a 2002 Grove City High School and 2006 Slippery Rock University graduate, is one of many area female athletes who transitioned from athlete to coach after their playing careers ended. SRU will host its annual Girls and Women in Sports Day Saturday at Morrow Field House before the basketball team plays the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.
For Osborn, who also volunteered at The Rock for two years after graduation, playing basketball helped develop strong time management skills.
“You hear a lot of people say that basketball was their life,” Osborn said. “That was me. I went to class, played basketball and went to sleep. I wasn’t a partier. That was my life.”
Kara Spagnola, 28, was thrilled when she had an opportunity to return to Seneca Valley High School as an assistant coach six years ago. After walking on to play basketball at SRU, Spagnola, a 2003 Seneca Valley graduate, was ready to help her alma mater.
“It’s definitely tough. You’re set to a different standard in college than with high school,” Spagnola said. “It has kind of humbled me in a way that it’s back to the basics and teaching these girls things they may not be comfortable with, things that are new to them. ... Showing them a different way of doing things kind of gives them an advantage if they are playing against an opponent that does things the way that normal high school kids do.”
Making the move from player to coach shocked Courtnay Rattigan Bryson in a good way. Bryson, who graduated from Karns City in 2000 before moving on to play at Indiana (Pa.) University, got a wake-up call when she was the second assistant coach for the Crimson Hawks for two seasons.
“The first time I stepped into the office at IUP as coach, it was like a slap in the face,” Bryson said. “What I thought our coaches did all day, wasn’t what college coaches did. Maybe 10 percent of my time was spent on the court.”
But Bryson’s balancing act as a player and coach paid dividends. She now works as a recruiter at UPMC St. Margaret, trying to find new residents for the pharmacy residency program and geriatric medicine fellowship.
“The funny thing was I first got declined for a few recruiting positions because my recruiting experience didn’t include physician recruiting,” Bryson said. “The NCAA is a lot more hands on than in the medical field.”
Ally Kepple doesn’t mind all the driving back and forth. Kepple, a 2008 Karns City and 2012 Westminster College graduate, likes keeping a busy schedule. During the early winter, she coached the Union middle school girls team and currently is an assistant for the Gremlins varsity team.
Kepple, who was a four-sport athlete at Karns City and teaches at Union, wasn’t sure what to expect.
“It’s definitely a different thing and I like being a part of it,” Kepple said. “It’s nice being able to help them with their successes. Early this year, we had a game go into overtime against Clarion. The girls had never been through that and it was like the greatest thing ever.”
Spagnola feels that the attitude toward women’s sports has shifted.
“Lacrosse, for example, has been big. My senior year we introduced it here as a club sport and there are now varsity lacrosse teams,” Spagnola said. “Different arenas and the Olympics build up women’s sports more. With college basketball and WNBA, women are almost portrayed to the level of some major superstars that are men. That’s where women’s sports have grown.”
