“I never dreamed that I’d be directing the NCAA Women Coaches Academy.”
— Celia Slater, Executive Director, NCAA Women Coaches
Academy; Co-founder, Win Star Foundation
— Celia Slater, Executive Director, NCAA Women Coaches
Academy; Co-founder, Win Star Foundation
So what do you do when you know that you are done with your current job—or your current profession? When you know it’s time for you to move on to the next phase of life but you’re not sure what your next steps are— or just how do you take the first step? When you have visions of what you could do but don’t have a solid course of action—how do you turn a vision into reality?
You do what Celia Slater did. You declare your vision out loud. You get out there. You push harder than ever, and you keep moving forward even when your vision isn’t going as originally planned.
At one point in Celia’s life if you’d asked her to describe herself in one word, she very well could have answered “basketball”. As a college student, Celia played basketball for both Clemson and Florida State. Between studying and playing she managed to find time to work basketball camps. It was at these camps that she discovered her love of teaching. For Celia, it seemed a natural progression to become a college basketball coach. She spent 16 years in college coaching. Toward the latter part of her career as head women’s basketball coach at Lynn University, Celia sensed it was time to embark down a new path. But what? Although she was searching for her next step, she lacked the courage to actually make a change.
“Basketball was a huge part of my identity”, says Slater. “I felt like I couldn’t walk away because I didn’t know who I’d be without it (basketball) so I felt fearful to leave.”
Despite the fear; even with the uncertainty, Celia was not shy sharing her ideas about a program she envisioned that would improve team experiences for student athletes. She named the program “Play with Purpose.” Celia truly believed that this program was her ticket out of coaching. She envisioned herself teaching these workshops in her next life’s phase. However, things took an unexpected turn. As Celia began focusing this program toward student athletes, she discovered that coaches also benefited. This sparked the development of a Coaches Program. But coaches couldn’t attain the funding to pay for their enrolling in the workshops and any attempts made to gain workshop sponsors fell short.
Despite this disappointment, Celia continued to push forward in all ways possible to find her next steps. As she states, she was “searching hard” at this point; going to any industry event she could. One such event was sponsored by the National Association of College Women’s Athletic Administrators. Little did Celia realize that this move would become the major turning point in her path to reinvention. The event featured a rather unique fundraiser and when it was over Celia ended up with Judy Sweet, NCAA's VP of Championships & Educational Services as her mentor. This relationship led to Celia being introduced to the Chair of Women Athletics at the NCAA and subsequently her submitting a proposal for her Coaches Program. As a result, the NCAA awarded seed money to test how the program would be received.
In an ironic turn of events, as Celia felt her coaching career crumbling to pieces, her life was coming together. Feeling like a failure after experiencing an awful coaching year, ironically, the right people starting showing up; the funding for the Coaching Program started to appear. The universe was listening to her ideas. Celia quickly took steps to rebuild her self-confidence; keenly aware of the need to be at the top of her game to grasp hold of the opportunity the universe was unveiling.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to sit around feeling sorry for myself” explains Slater.
With Celia leading the way, the NCAA pilot programs became a success and as they say, the rest is history. To date Celia has directed 22 highly successful NCAA Women Coaching Academy sessions, which are open to any coach from any sport, and any division.
“I remember sitting back and crying during the very first Coaches Academy” states Celia. “It felt like things were clicking and coming together; and I felt so humbled doing it.”
But the Coaches Academy wasn’t the only idea that clicked. Remember Celia’s first program idea “Play with Purpose” — the idea she felt would be her ticket out of coaching? This program, along with the Coaches Academy, now comprise The Win Star Foundation— a non-profit educational organization co-founded by Celia that provides leadership and skills training for coaches and athletes. And the NCAA is their largest grant.
Celia’s path to reinvention was not without unexpected turns and obstacles, however she feels it was well worth the struggle. “I can’t imagine doing anything else” says Celia.
As you move down your journey to success, your vision might not look the way you thought it would at the start. At the beginning of her journey Celia never dreamed she would be coaching Academies for the NCAA.
“You need to let go of any attachments of what your vision looked like at the beginning because you don’t know the bigger picture. You have to let things unfold the way they are supposed to— let go and let it happen.”
