Sunday Sit-down with Mizzou women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones brought on Mizzou women's basketball coach Kellie Harper and her horse Anastasia in this week's edition of Sunday Sit-down.
You can watch their full chat during SportsZone at 10:30 on ABC 17.
You can also find the full transcript of the interview below.
Nathalie Jones: Welcome back, everyone. It is Sunday sit down time. Except we're not sitting down, and we're definitely not near a studio. We're joined by Mizzou women's basketball coach, Kellie Harper. Kellie, we're in a happy place right now.
Kellie Harper: Yes, we are. Yes, everybody needs a balance, and we're here today.
Nathalie: Well, we've got a special friend here. Tell us and tell us about your friend here.
Kellie: This is Anastasia T. She's the Holsteiner Mare. Her barn name is Stasia, so I've had her a few months now, and we've had a few competitions under our belt. So, I'm having a great time learning a lot on her.
Nathalie: I was going to say, when when did you start taking these kind of lessons? It was cool to watch you out there.
Kellie: Moving to Mizzou. I'm actually moving to Columbia. I met Crystal Kendrick at Mid-Mo Riding Center and started taking lessons in July.
Nathalie: What is it about taking these lessons that that was so important to you coming to Columbia?
Kellie You know, finding a balance in life is hard when you're a basketball coach and a mom, and you have a lot of things pulling at you. And so many times, I think you can forget to do things for yourself. You know, we do so much, and we love it. I love what I do, I love where I work and who I work for and who I work with, I love hanging out with my kids and doing a lot of stuff with my kids. But, this is the thing I get to do for me, the one thing for me, and it's been it's been awesome.
Nathalie: Yeah, I mean, growing up, you you were around horses, you were with horses. When did that passion start for you?
Kellie: You know, I was the crazy little girl that asked for a pony when she was five and got one. I've had horses all my life, ever since I got that first pony, but I've always wanted to do this, I've always wanted to jump and do some equestrian events. Never explored it, never just did it until this past year, and I've enjoyed every minute of it.
Nathalie: Well, I was kind of looking into things, and Pat Summitt. I know it was so important to her to have something await from coaching. I mean, how proud do you think Pat Summitt would be just what you're doing here, something that's not nothing to do with basketball, right?
Kellie: Well, I think she was a country girl, so she would like anything out on the farm. She would be really proud of this, and she was the one that I will never forget. My first year as a coach, she, she told me we were talking, and I said, "What are you doing? She said, "I'm taking a two-week vacation, and I my jaw dropped, you know, and she said, "You have to." And she said, "Kellie, you have to find balance in your life because it's going to allow you to be your best for your players, and they need your best."
Nathalie: Being out here and being coached by someone, what does that do for you being a coach?
Kellie: Actually, people don't understand the similarities. It is-it's funny. I don't know that my players want me to compare them to my riding lessons, but it's actually very similar. First off, I love being coached. Love it. And Crystal, my trainer, and I have talked a lot about coaching and how you have to relate to different people at different times, and you have to get creative at times when people don't understand. Sometimes there's a time to be sympathetic and loving and then there's a time that, no, we got to go now. We got to do this now. So, I think it's been really fun for me looking at the lens of a coach as a rider, it's been very interesting. I've learned a lot.
Nathalie: Yeah, you can learn a lot from the coaching. Is there anything you can learn from you know having an animal here and kind of taking care of Stasia, right?
Kellie: Yeah. My gosh, I think about her as our athletes a lot. So, you know, she has to get the right nutrition, she has to have the right exercise, she has to have a variety, she has to be healthy, she gets some massages sometimes, so she has to be taken care of. Our athletes are the same. You know, we have a nutritionist, we have a strength and conditioning coach, we have to monitor their load, we have to, you know, make sure we're doing the right thing on each day, finding variety in their workouts as well.
Nathalie: This is such a crazy time in college athletics, but to come out here-I mean, you come out here. There's cats and dogs, there's horses, it's still. How amazing is just this environment, just for your mental space?
Kellie: Well, you know, there there are not a lot of things that can completely take your mind off of the task at hand, right? There are so many things for us to be thinking about. Our first practice is coming up soon. You know, we talk, we think about what we're doing in practice. The next day, you know, I'm always working about our calendar and how we need to be our best. But, I'm telling you, for an hour out here, nothing else matters when I'm on this horse because if I'm not fully here with her, we're not going to get over the fence. We're not going to do it right, and you know that, it can-it's actually quite dangerous. You have to be mentally engaged, ans what you're doing in that moment when when you're with horses.
Nathalie: What have competitions been like being able to go out and kind of test the things you've learned, right?
Kellie: So, let's just say I'm not as competitive riding a horse as I am as a coach because I'm not as good riding a horse. But, I think, you know, that's where everybody has to have goals and for me, sometimes the goal is just to finish. Let's just finish and let's get better at what we're trying to do. I'm at the lowest level, and I don't care. That is fine with me. [Stasia] and I have improved so much in the last really couple months, and so I enjoy the process. Now, that is very similar to our basketball team. If you just look forward to the competitions, or if you just look forward to the games, you're missing so much and so for us, it has to be about the journey. For our team, it does. You have to enjoy the mundane, and you have to enjoy every single day. And that is 100 percent what's going on with me here at the barn.
Nathalie: Well, tell me about your team. I mean, what are you excited about with this group of girls this year?
Kellie: Man, I love our competitiveness. I love our spirit. I think we've we've really set the tone early. I think we're going to have a toughness about us that we really wanted to see improve. Defensively, we're light years ahead of where we were last year. I realized we we you know we weren't where we needed to be last year. We knew that put a lot of time in our offense, but this year I think we're going to be a little bit more well-rounded. We have a lot of youth. We are we are very young. There's a lot of excitement about that. You know, I think just the newness is just-it's fresh, and I think it's been good for the players in our program.
Nathalie: You built such a foundation last year. I know it's not where you guys ultimately want to be, but how important was that first year and just building that foundation, getting a first playoff win, right?
Kellie: Yeah, it was so huge. It was so huge. I'm so proud of what we did last year. I really am. And for us to, you know, to get here, assemble a team, put a team together that could get to the postseason for the first time in several years and look, I get it. It's not where we want to be, but I think it was a huge first step, and it was a positive step for our players and our program, and you know our returners in particular, Grace [Slaughter] and Abbey [Scheacke] and Averi [Kroenke], I think they saw something, and I think they're super excited and about the growth that we can continue to have.
Nathalie: When you set goals for the season, do you set goals very high, or where do you set goals for this season?
Kellie: You know, we do. I think what we we try to do is is engage our players in our goals. We're not there yet, and and our staff, but we want to come up with things that are meaningful, things that are attainable. I mean, you know, I think it's important that they could actually see it coming true. You know, but also, I'm not talking about hey, let's just win a game. No, I mean we want to we want to push them. You know, we want them to fight for more. And I'll be honest with you, sometimes that means let's set a goal, and then let's reassess and set another goal. You know, I think you can you can set multiple goals throughout the season.
Nathalie: Have you ever brought them out here? Are you ever going to have them meet Anastasia here?
Kellie: Actually, let's see who, Reka. Reka has come out. Reka. So Reka rode a little as a young girl, and you know sometimes when you're from Hungary, you don't have the family connection in Columbia that some of the other players do. So she's actually been out with me to see the horses, and so that's pretty cool. And then some of them check up on me. I know Grace has asked me quite a bit about how how things are going with my horse, so.
Nathalie: Yeah, what do you think that teaches them? Just about showing them about this balance that you've kind of striked in your life.
Kellie: You know, I hope they hope they see me as somebody that is, you know, well-rounded. I know they they see me with my kids, you know, and how much I love my kids. But, you know, I want them to see that you can have everything in life. I really feel like I do right now. I think it's just-it's so cool. You can work really hard, and you know, work. Give everything you've got to your job and to me. It's our team. But then there's 24 hours in the day. If you if you really focus and you and you are very dedicated, you can you can get it all in. Now that might mean that I have to set my alarm for 4:50 at times when things get really busy at work. I'm out here riding at 6:00 and I'm done at 7:30.
Nathalie: Wow.
Kellie: You know, and and sometimes that's the only way I can make this work. But, I'm committed to it, and fortunately they allow me to come out early and get some rides in.
Nathalie: How rewarding is all this right now? I mean, when you look at taking a year off and then getting back into coaching, and how rewarding is what you've kind of achieved right now?
Kellie: Like I said, I don't know that I could design this any better right now, and you know we want to continue to be competitive in our program because you know that that's such a big part of what we're doing here, you know, and, but I think I think people can see how happy I am, and you know I think my family's happy, our team is happy. I think it's a very positive culture. You know we just we just want to keep fighting. Sometimes I know Laird [Veatch] has talked about this before. Sometimes that gain is very small, and we have to celebrate those small gains because over the long haul, over the course of time, you know we're still moving forward, and you know you just you got to get a little lucky along the way, and you know look, I'm I'm super excited about this season. I really am super excited.
Nathalie: Well, Kellie, I appreciate you making time. And Stasia was such a great girl. I appreciate you guys hanging out with us. She's a beautiful girl, Kellie. Thank you.
Kellie: Thank you.
Nathalie: For the rest of you guys will be right back after the break.
