COACH CLEO

CCNTV6

What do athletes do when they are done competing. Well, many of them excel at coaching. That's been the case of T&T Shotputter Cleopatra Borel. She's now a coach at Virginia Tech University and she reflected on what it was like making the transition from athlete to coach.

Transcript

00:00Olympian Cleopatra Burrell remains as TNT's most decorated female shot-putter.

00:04Giving words of inspiration to TNT's young athletes, the Mayaro native

00:09recapped what it was like leaving the competitive arena and entering into the

00:13job market. Once my career came to an end, I did other jobs. I worked not in

00:23corporate America. I worked in corporate America. I worked in huge office

00:29buildings. I worked at an office complex working in medical sales for exactly

00:37three days and the company I worked for worked with hip replacement devices and

00:45such and we were going to, I was going to work in that field and having, you know,

00:51having to sit down and work in an office for three days, I got a limp in my hip

00:56and I was like, I'm gonna need one of these devices if I stay in this field.

01:02She missed the sport and switched to coaching at a Division One school before

01:06coaching at Texas State. Had tremendous success there. I was able to coach

01:12fantastic athletes there and we actually won the Sunbelt Championship last year

01:17so I had my first team win which was great and now this year I'm starting at

01:23Virginia Tech which is where I actually trained for, you know, the Olympic Games.

01:28Burrell says she studies technique more now as a coach than as an athlete. So

01:34what must athletes do to impress coach Cleopatra Burrell? For one, she mentioned

01:39the showing up on time helps. If you're very, very talented and you're not

01:43motivated, it's very, very difficult for your coaches to to deal with and to help

01:56you become your best. There are athletes that are not very driven or may not be

02:01driven with me but may be driven with another coach but it's just really a

02:06struggle when you have athletes and coaches that can't work and mesh

02:13together. So as a coach, is she still training? Even though I'm not the athlete

02:20any longer, I still lift, I still weight train, I still do cardio. Like I, as a

02:29coach, I still need to be able to perform at a high level in service of my

02:34athletes. She added that becoming a coach has given her a great appreciation

02:39of what her coaches did and admitted it's a great compliment to them when

02:43their athletes are able to execute what they've been teaching in training. Sergio

02:47Dufour, TV6 Sport.

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