走得更远的力量
As a trainer, Shaakira Hassell’00 pushes athletes beyond what they can see.
In many ways, Shaakira Hassell’s professional career mirrors her 十大菠菜台子 experience. 尽管困难重重，她还是坚持不懈地取得了成功.
As a strength and conditioning coach in a field largely dominated by white men, 为了追求自己的激情，她忍受了性别歧视和种族歧视. 这一决心使他在六年的时间里领导了美国.S. 海岸警卫队学院体能训练项目, 与军事特种部队一起训练, 2018年与美国国家橄榄球联盟的卡罗莱纳黑豹队合作.
“I’ve been steadfast with my beliefs because of how much I care for my athletes,哈塞尔说. “When I train, we both learn from each other as the whole person. 这不仅仅是心理和身体上的，也是精神上的. I care about what my athletes do when they’re not in the weight room. I care about their life and their family or how their schoolwork is going. That strengthens our relationship to the point where we grow together.”
The seeds of that holistic approach began when Hassell, class of 2000, self-designed her 跨学科体育科学专业 大三的时候. She had enjoyed an athletic training class and jokingly now says she knew she couldn’t pursue becoming a sports science doctor because she didn’t want to take genetics.
“But I knew I always wanted to be tied to sports in some way,” she says. “And I knew after taking the athletic training class that I didn’t just want to see my athletes when they were hurt.”
设计自己的专业帮助她建立了一个重点, 到那时为止, 在贝洛伊特的经历中躲过了哈塞尔. 她被从芝加哥招出来打篮球, but a coaching change and torn Achilles derailed that experience after her sopho更多的 year. 她偶尔会努力不让自己感到孤立.
而是和塞西尔·杨布拉德有联系, 然后是男子篮球教练，现在是学生主任, 是偶然的.
塞西尔告诉我关于力量和体能的事，他说, 你不仅可以看到你的运动员受伤的时候, 但你将是那个帮助他们免受伤害的人. 而且全年都有.这引起了我的兴趣，”哈塞尔说. “反正我是一个幕后的人. 所以我知道我不想做一个x和o的教练.”
Youngblood says he merely offered advice to channel strengths that Hassell already possessed.
“I gravitated to her because I could kind of see she was struggling,” Youngblood says. “她努力做到了现在的样子, she just couldn’t find the pathway to make herself comfortable. We bonded over her wanting to learn 更多的, to get stronger, to help her be a better athlete.
“What I noticed about her from the beginning was that she was stubborn and wouldn’t be intimidated. 她会找到自己的路.”
哈塞尔就是这么做的. She also credited connections with classmates and former 贝洛伊特 administrator Natalie Cepeda, 生物学 马里昂·菲尔德·法斯教授，还有 跳舞 克里斯·约翰逊教授.
“在伯洛伊特，我学到了很多关于生活的东西，”她说. “我学到了很多如何与人相处的方法. 我对自己有了更多的了解.”
作为设计自己专业的一部分，哈塞尔申请了一份 出国留学 在澳大利亚毕业后立即参加的项目, 一个处于真人国际菠菜科学前沿的国家. While there, she tried out for the Melbourne Tigers, a powerhouse professional basketball program.
Impressively, this is one of two professional athlete lines on Hassell’s résumé. 一时兴起, she also tried out for — and made — the Chicago Force and Atlanta XPlosion of the Independent Women’s Football League. 她所在的亚特兰大队赢得了2006年的IWFL冠军.
This newfound love for football is why Hassell attended both Georgia Southern and Valdosta State University in Georgia as she pursued her master’s degree and worked as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach.
“在南方，在一个男性主导的领域, 乔治亚南方大学不让我训练橄榄球,哈塞尔说. “他们在12月解雇了我，让我不要回来.”
不管怎样，哈塞尔还是回来了——我们提过她很固执吗? — to finish the academic year before attending Valdosta State. 她拿到了研究生学位, she landed her first full-time job as Troy University’s assistant strength and conditioning coach in Alabama where she worked with — what else — the football team, 等, 同时获得另一个硕士学位, 这个是体育管理部门的.
在2011年结束的时候, she worked in private practice for IMG Academy and served a two-month stint as tactical strength and conditioning coach at Fort Bragg, 训练军人. A colleague at Fort Bragg landed a job coaching basketball at the Coast Guard Academy and put Hassell in touch with the athletic director.
哈塞尔找到了一个家.
“I got hired as their head strength and conditioning coach,哈塞尔说. “I got along from the first day with the football coach, Bill George. 我告诉他, ‘If you have problems with me being a female leading your men, 那我们现在就得谈谈. 因为我要留下来.’他笑着说:‘我的人就是你的人. 我相信你会尽你所能让他们变得更好.’”
哈塞尔在海岸警卫队工作了近六年, she also landed the prestigious Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship and worked the Carolina Panthers’ 2018 training camp.
哈塞尔全程参与, 吸收她能找到的任何一点信息或知识. She worked with the sports nutritionist to learn how to dispense players’ supplements pre- and post-practice. And the Panthers placed her in charge of working with injured athletes during practice and at different stations in the weight room for the entire team.
“这超出了我最疯狂的梦想. 这整个经历让人兴奋不已，”哈塞尔说. “他们看起来并不想教我. 他们弄得好像想让我去帮助他们. 他们没有事无巨细地管理我. 他们说相信我能帮上忙.”
当时, 黑豹队甚至请来了马里奥·艾迪生, 他是哈塞尔以前的特洛伊橄榄球队队员, 她的第一份全职工作是什么.
“I’ve never had one bad experience with any of my athletes in 16 years in the field, 不管他们从事什么运动,哈塞尔说.
This speaks to Hassell’s care factor and commitment to her holistic approach — even if she has occasionally had to overcome racist and sexist barriers to implement it.
哈塞尔目前正在攻读博士学位.D. in health sciences and exercise and sports science at Liberty University while also working as an independent contractor for the military and government. 她创建的公司名为Go Far! 政府服务.
That’s the same phrase Hassell uses to break huddles on the sideline or in the weight or training room with her athletes. It’s a reminder that no matter her next career move — her goals include working with military special operations forces, 或者是NFL的工作, or becoming the first Black female to head strength and conditioning at a Big Ten university — her focus always is on pushing her athletes to achieve beyond what they can currently see.
“这让我很开心，”哈塞尔说. “Motivating people to do better and to want to do better and getting them to realize that they can be better than they were the day before, 这就是我的动力.”
K.C. 约翰逊89年在NBC体育芝加哥报道芝加哥公牛队. He spent 29 years at the Chicago Tribune, covering two Olympic Games and 23 公牛的季节.
