Paige Hassen: JRN

Caitlin Smith is a current CMU senior studying Sports Management. Smith was born into a family that loves basketball, so the game has been a part of her for 21 years. From playing with her family to joining kids’ teams to playing travel and school ball, basketball has always been a large part of Smith’s life.

In one of Smith’s first sports management classes at CMU, the current CMU Women’s Club Basketball coach came into her class saying that he was retiring and looking for a replacement. Being someone who has been immersed in basketball for most her life, Smith liked the idea of being a coach. After talking to the coach and going to a few practices, Smith has been the head Women’s Club Basketball Coach ever since.

After a few heartbreaking injuries throughout middle school and high school, Smith was unsure if she would be able ever partake in the sport she loved again. Through sticking with her team in high school, she developed a love for coaching as well. Here is where her passion for Sports Management started to blossom into wanting to make it a career.

Since becoming head coach, Smith has reshaped and redeveloped her love for basketball in ways that she didn’t know was possible. From making connections with her players to being back on the court to accepting a new role of keeping the game in her life, Smith is still able to do what she loves most.

My experience working on this:

I liked working on this video. I knew Caitlin and knew her background with basketball and thought it was a wonderful story that I wanted to share, and she was an amazing person to work with. Her team was very open to me shooting one of their practices, and she was very open and honest with her interview! I ended up having about 30 minutes of interview that I brought down to around 3 minutes, which was very difficult. I had to go through quite a few learning curves, so I’m definitely looking forward to improving my skills during the rest of the class.