>> My name is Charlene Morette and I'm the head field hockey coach here at Penn State University.
I've been the coach here for 25 years.
When I'm in season it's my day and night actually so I can't say what just my day is like.
It's getting up early and coming to work and preparing,
looking at film from the day before of our competitors
and maybe of our games and then preparing practice.
A lot of times you're interacting with the trainers or the strength coaches,
what you're going to do as far as the conditioning/strength that that practice might include.
It's then setting the goals for practice, setting the practice plan
and then going to practice 1/2 hour early.
Anybody wants to be there early to work on any type of skill development or just talk to me,
I'm always there 1/2 hour early and then when practice starts it's,
you know, full steam ahead for probably about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
When practice is finished that evening I feel like I'm always watching more game tape.
I love game day. I look forward to it.
It gives me chills down to the locker room and just interact with my players.
I love that part of it.
When I go in that locker room to meet my team, I'm so excited, so fired up for the game
and just so excited for them just having the opportunity
to compete as Penn State against our next competitor,
so it's such a privilege and it is such an honor and I think,
you know, obviously with the memorial to Joe last week,
I think we all had a great swelling of pride about this school.
I think that we're very resilient people.
I think we're very loving people.
This is a very caring community, caring university,
an extremely special place and again I think that the world saw just how special Penn State is.
Being with the players.
I love running with them.
I go on campus runs with them and it's a beautiful campus, so sometimes we'll just go for a nice,
easy run through downtown and through the campus and just I talk to them about some,
my playing days or some of my memories being a Penn Stater and listen to their memories and things like that.
I think interacting with the players is my favorite part of being a coach.
The hardest part of being a coach is trying to make every player feel how much you care for them.
I think sometimes the players, they focus on their playing time
and it's not always going to be that way and I think it's hard when you see a player that gets hurt,
you know, or they're hurting emotionally or they're hurting physically,
so I think that's the hardest part for me is just to try to get them to continue to believe in themselves
and to keep pressing forward and understand that they've got a lot of support around them, including myself,
and we're going to help them get through these hard times, and I think it's a hard thing for me,
but it also makes me realize what a special place it is
and a special opportunity I have to help these people.
I think you have to be passionate about your sport,
you have to be passionate about your job,
you have to recognize that it's not a 9-5 job,
that there are going to be so many challenges dealing with different personalities,
but I think it has to be somebody that obviously really enjoys what they're doing.
They've got to be almost like a hockey head, like they love the sport and,
you know, our sport I think is very unique in that we don't get to watch Monday Night Field Hockey.
We don't get to watch it, you now, on TV.
So we're always trying to find ways to teach our athletes to see the sport
and to understand how the sport is played both skill development also tactically,
so I think it's real important for our coach that comes in to understand the skill set, the tactics,
but also most importantly is to make sure that they not only have passion
but have compassion as well when they coach.
I grew up in a small town in Alden, Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia,
??? High School was the high school and it was 7-12 in one building
and when I was offered the opportunity to come to Penn State
and get a scholarship to play field hockey and Lacrosse
it was very important to me because I didn't come from a wealthy family.
I came from a very blue collar family, so I came here to Penn State and just never looked back,
just was excited about having the opportunity to put on the blue and white uniform
and try to be the best player that I could be every day at practice,
trying to be the best teammate I could be
and starting in 1978 the 1980 Moscow Olympics decided that they were going to put women's field hockey
as one of their sports for the Olympic games in 1980.
So in 1978 I had the opportunity to train to be an Olympian.
I really couldn't dream of being an Olympian before because field hockey wasn't in the Olympics
and unfortunately in 1980, April 1980,
President Carter mandated that we were going to boycott the games in Moscow,
so I was really, really sad, very, very devastating and,
you know, I had to think, what am I going to do now?
And it took me a nanosecond.
I'm going to train for 1984, I was young enough, that's what I'm going to do.
And from the Olympics I took a head coaching job at Boston College
and from Boston College I coached hockey and Lacrosse.
In 1987 my coach retired, so I came down here in '87 and been here ever since.
I think just to be a head coach, just to understand that there is so much to learn
and there are so many great people out there that can teach you so much
and to broaden your horizons with different programs so that you will learn from a lot of different coaches.
I read every book, like Mike Chesefsi, Bill Parcels, Vince Lombardi, like Joe Paterno,
always reading those books and watching different athletic events and listening to different sports talks,
I listen to that stuff all the time because more information I can gather
is what other experiences coaches have gone through helps me, helps mold me who I am as a coach.
So I would just say try to get as many experiences as you can with,
you know, various types of coaches is going to make you a better coach.