Born & Bred // June 2019 // Mentors

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ISSUE XV

O F F I C I A L

M A G A Z I N E

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MENTORS

TEACHING LIFELONG LESSONS

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Letter from the Editor

If you have kids, you’re familiar with the end of school year routine as everyone scrambles for those end-ofyear teacher gifts.

Should you go with something hand made? Perhaps a gift card? What’s the right balance between showing appreciation and looking like you’re trying to nudge that B- to a B? Here at Born & Bred, we went with a slightly different tactic: an entire issue devoted completely to teachers and mentors. Consider this our Teacher Appreciation issue, with the caveat that sometimes those teachers aren’t necessarily standing at a blackboard or handing out homework assignments. Some of us had traditional teachers who helped us figure out how to be successful long before we even thought about what being successful meant (mine were Jill Whitaker and Sandy Umstead at Apex High School).

Others may have been a friend or a coach or a family member. No matter what their official title, however, every successful Carolina player or coach has at some point benefited from the influence of a teacher or mentor.

Sometimes, that influence has even prompted them to

PRODUCED BY THE RAMS CLUB EDITOR IN CHIEF ADAM LUCAS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS LEE PACE, MARGARET HIGH, ANDREW STILWELL & JOHN BAUMAN PHOTOGRAPHY JEFFREY CAMARATI & UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN JUJUBE SPORTS PUBLISHING

pursue a career in education.

By now, everyone knows that Roy Williams learned a great deal from Dean Smith. But what you might not know is even before Williams ever met Smith, a teacher had changed the course of Williams’ life—and perhaps deprived Georgia Tech of the next great engineer.

Those are the types of stories you’ll read in this issue.

Sometimes the relationships even come full circle, as with newly hired women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart, who once interviewed Tar Heel women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance as part of a graduate thesis on leadership, and now finds herself as a coworker in the same athletic department with Dorrance.

That’s only fitting for a school that pioneered the conscious study of leadership in college athletics back in 2004 with the Carolina Leadership Academy, which has since been named for former athletic director Dick Baddour, who helped found the organization.

Hopefully, that element of the athletic department has helped create some future mentors and teachers, including a few that you’ll read about in these pages.

ADAM LUCAS Editor in Chief ramsclub.com

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“I’m very relational and optimistic. I see hope often. Sometimes people are bound by the level they’ve been told they can reach. I don’t see that. I just keep going.” —COURTNEY BANGHART

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EDITION ON THE COVER: Five-time ACC coach of the year Brian Kalbas is the all-time winningest coach in ACC women’s tennis history.

PHOTO BY TODD KIRKLAND, THEACC.COM

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EDITOR’S LETTER p. 3

Ken Browning has impacted the careers and lives of hundreds of Tar Heels

BY LEE PACE

MENTORS

16 A Relentless Dream Women’s tennis alum Haley Hemm is committed to her vision of education

BY JOHN BAUMAN

MENTORS

24 Teach the World

Teach for America program offers global opportunities

BY JOHN BAUMAN

CAROLINA EVERYWEAR p. 22

TAR HEEL TICKER p. 6

MENTORS

10 A Football Life

38 MENTORS

30 Sticks in the City

Carolina men’s and women’s lacrosse programs benefit from New York City connections

BY ANDREW STILWELL

MENTORS

34 The Complete Experience

Morgan Goetz won a national title while also developing a unique path in a difficult field

BY MARGARET HIGH

FIRST PERSON

38 ‘A lifetime impact’

An early encounter with a key teacher changed Roy Williams’ life

BY ROY WILLIAMS

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TA R H E E LT I C K E R MENTORS

SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARDS LUNCHEON

Each year, UNC honors the five male and five female graduating senior student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade point averages. Honorees are accompanied by their most influential professors.

TOM BILDEN

Men’s Swimming & Diving Majoring in Business Administration Faculty guest: Dr. Robert Babcock, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Classics

KATE BOYER

Women’s Swimming & Diving Majoring in Biostatistics and Mathematics Faculty guest: Dr. Jane Monaco, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Director of Undergraduate Studies

JAMIE DECICCO

Gymnastics Majoring in Psychology Faculty guests: Dr. Vicki Chanon, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of Undergraduate Psychology Research Dr. Nita Eskew, Director of Undergraduate Laboratories, Department of Chemistry

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MORGAN GOETZ

Field Hockey Majoring in Biomedical and Health Sciences Engineering Faculty guests: Dr. Frances Ligler, Lampe Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering Lanier Hodgson, Director of State and Federal Policy for UNC Healthcare and UNC School of Medicine

BRENDAN ILLIES

Baseball Majoring in Physics Faculty guest: Alexander Arapoglou, Professor of the Practice of Finance, Kenan-Flagler Business School

JARED MARTIN

Men’s Track & Field Majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty guest: Dr. Marsha Penner, Director of Undergraduate Research and Lecturer, Psychology and Neuroscience

ANDREW PEDERSEN

Men’s Track & Field Majoring in Business Administration Faculty guest: Courtney Porter, Associate Director of Wood Center for Real Estate Studies, Kenan-Flagler Business School

AUSTIN SELLERS

Men’s Swimming & Diving Majoring in Business Administration Faculty guest: Greg Hohn, Senior Lecturer of Management and Corporate Communication, Kenan-Flagler Business School

LYDIA THOMPSON

Rowing Majoring in English Faculty guest: Dr. Connie Clare Eble, Professor of English

KELLY WILLIAMS

Rowing Majoring in Environmental Science, Sustainability Faculty guest: Dr. Conghe Song, Professor and Assoc. Dept. Chair, Geography

MENTORS

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP

Carolina made two recent head coaching hires, adding Courtney Banghartt to coach women’s basketball and Mark Gangloff to head the swimming and diving program. We asked the two newest Tar Heels about important leadership lessons in their coaching journey.

“ “ MY GRADUATE THESIS WAS AN ORAL HISTORY ON SPORTS LEADERSHIP. I WAS ABLE TO SPEND TWO HOURS FACE TO FACE WITH COACHES LIKE GENO AURIEMMA, ANSON DORRANCE AND KAY YOW.

I had a wish list of people who I felt were very impactful and I cold emailed them. I didn’t get a single “no.” I asked all of them the same series of questions regarding who their mentors were, what their journey was like, and times when they took the harder right or the easier wrong. Through those conversations, my takeaway was that leadership is being entirely authentic to who you are. How Anson leads is different than how Geno leads, but their leadership comes from them being the best version of themselves.

I also believe it’s important that leaders have conversations outside of their industry. I talk weekly with Patti Phillips, who is the CEO of Women Leaders in College Sports, about our voice and our impact.

COURTNEY BANGHART

Head Coach, Women’s Basketball

MARK GANGLOFF

Head Coach, Swimming & Diving My most influential mentor, David Marsh, was my head coach at Auburn.

It was very impressive watching him develop a team culture of excellence and helping me individually realize my goals. His standards and expectations for excellence were second to none. He watched everything, from how you carried your swim bag to how you presented yourself. At the same time, he is also very creative. He doesn’t just follow the normal coaching trends. He’s constantly experimenting, and he has the ability to put the right people in the right places.

One important thing I learned from him is that every team is different. My 2002 Auburn team was different than the 2003 team. The 2019-20 Carolina swimming and diving team will be different than the following team.

It’s critical to treat each team as its own individual set of personalities, and also to constantly reinforce the culture and expectations. There is a thread of expectations of excellence, while also realizing each team is slightly different.

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FAVORITE PROFESSORS Current Tar Heels talk about their favorite Carolina professors.

Photos by Jeffrey Camarati

I really enjoyed a class with Joe Bongiovi. The BASEBALL class was Management 410, which was looking at different organizations. So looking at bureaucracies, different workplace organizations, how they’re structured, how they’re run, how they profit and so forth. He was really good at engaging the class. We were able to work in groups. We looked at a bunch of different sample cases. He really enjoyed what he did and he wanted the students to get the most out of it. That was one of the most enjoyable classes and perhaps one of the classes I learned the most from.

HANSEN BUTLER

I would say Robert Malekoff. … I had a class with him last TRACK & FIELD year and I’m in a summer class with him right now. We have really been working well together. I think just the way he talks about sports really makes you look at it in different ways, not just physically, but through the business standpoint of it and just the value of sports itself. I think he really impacted me with that.

MADISON WILTROUT

LUKE MAYE

MEN’S BASKETBALL

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I’d probably say with the Business School, I have two, one being Professor Dave Roberts. He taught a sales course that was really influential, just to see how you interact with people, how you read people and it really taught me a lot for not only the business world, but life in general and just growing relationships. And then also Professor (C.J.) Skender. He was great. He was somebody who really enjoyed the concept of sports. He took it into his class, and that was pretty cool just to have him talk about it and kind of reach out to me. After I hit the shot (against Kentucky), he was really influential in making sure everyone knew it was me. He was great, and I just really appreciate all he did.

TA R H E E LT I C K E R

COREY BELL, JR. FOOTBALL

NICOLE GREENE TRACK & FIELD

JILL SHIPPEE TRACK & FIELD

DYLAN HARRIS BASEBALL

CONNOR OLLIO BASEBALL

I’d probably have to say one of them was an education class I took. Professor Carmen Huerta-Bapat. She was very influential because in that class we learned a lot about education and this school, but one thing about that class that I had with her was we really focused on relationships with people and how we treated each other.

Sometimes when you get caught up in lectures and just endless things, you kind of get away from the high school vibe where you know your teacher. With her, it was a summer class and we ended up really focusing on how treat people, how we work, getting a degree from here but what are you doing after that, just all types of stuff.

My favorite professor by far is Dr. (Cynthia) Current. She’s in the English department.

I took an English 123 class last spring. I don’t even think it was for a gen ed. I just needed a filler class because I was taking a major class, a STEM class and a minor class. So I just needed something, and I had more of my gen eds. But she’s an English professor. It was English 123: Intro to Fiction. She was actually, I think, a surgical nurse before she became a professor. So I kind of related since she was in health care before. It was how she taught the class and how passionate she was about reading and stuff. I’m in STEM, kind of, with being pre-med. So coming here, I was like, ‘Why do I have to take all these liberal arts classes?’ Or all the gen eds. But I think she was the person who really made me appreciate getting a liberal arts education. I see her around all the time and I’m like, ‘I miss you so much.’

I had an exercise and sports science professor this year, Danielle Smith, and she’s been super helpful in everything. She was a track and field athlete, actually, in high school. I think she went to the University of Maryland, but didn’t do track. I’m from New York and she’s from New Jersey, and I’ve spent a lot of time in New Jersey; my brother lives there. So we have a lot in common. She’s like the strongest woman.

She’s very young, but she’s done a lot in her career so far and she’s super strong, super confident. I would love to do what she does.

Professor (Joseph) Hooper. I had Education 301 with him as a junior transfer seminar.

Just his class made me go out and I had to write a paper about basically my life, comparing junior college baseball to Division I baseball. That class really helped me relate to my own life and figure some things out.

I had one this year for American Studies. His name was Professor (Seth) Kotch. He was awesome. It was a current events class, so he taught to our strengths, he taught to our weaknesses and he sort of just made us better civilians, not just students. He really helped us understand the real world.

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A FOOTBALL LIFE KEN BROWNING HAS IMPACTED THE CAREERS AND LIVES OF HUNDREDS OF TAR HEELS

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BY LEE PACE

PHOTOS BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS Ken Browning grew up on a farm in northern Durham County and at one point thought of becoming a veterinarian. But that changed his senior year at Northern Durham High in 1963 when, as an all-conference two-way lineman, he broke his leg early in the season and would be out for about five weeks. Head coach Ernie Martin suggested that Browning, already established as a player whom others would ask for assignment cues and reminders, make productive use of the down-time and help coach the freshman team.

“Coaching made sense to me,” Browning says. “I knew everybody’s assignments pretty much. Even the guys I played with, if they didn’t know what to do, they’d ask me. The coaching just felt right. That experience gave me a tip, ‘You might can do this, this might be what you’re cut out to do.’ That put the bug in my ear.”

Call it a gift. Everybody has one in some form or fashion.

Browning’s special talent for half a century now has been to impart the skills and schemes of football to young men. It’s been to motivate

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them and provide structure, counsel and discipline. And he’s done so with a forceful yet calm and even-handed approach.

“I’ve yet to hear him raise his voice,” says John Dunn, a tight end in the early 2000s who’s now offensive coordinator at the University of Connecticut. “Coach Browning didn’t have to scream and yell to motivate people because you respected him so much you didn’t want to let him down.”

“He was not a yeller, never dog-cussed anyone,” adds Ryan Sims, a first-round draft pick in 2001 after his career as a defensive tackle at Carolina. “He was cool and calm as could be. But you knew when you disappointed him and he was not happy.”

Browning coached 18 years at Carolina under four head coaches. He coached the defensive line under Mack Brown and then Carl Torbush from 1994-2000, adding the defensive coordinator role in 2000. John Bunting retained him in 2001 but asked Browning to move to tight ends, which he did through 2004. Then Bunting had an opening on the defensive line in 2005, and Browning moved back to coach tackles for Bunting’s last two years. When Butch Davis arrived in 2007, he retained Browning but switched him to running backs.

That 1994-2011 tenure is the longest for any Tar Heel football coach. George Barclay had 16 years coaching at Carolina, 13 as a freshman team or varsity assistant and three as head coach from 1953-55.

And now that tenure is adding a new chapter. When Mack Brown was hired in November 2018, for help with film study, recruiting evaluations and opponent and self-scouting to supplement the work of the full-time assistants, he wanted to hire several veteran coaches he’d worked with before who’d “seen it all.” Two were Darrell Moody (an assistant during Brown’s first run at Carolina) and Sparky Woods (the former head coach at Appalachian State, South Carolina and VMI), who joined the staff as “senior consultants.”

Brown also approached Browning, who he first hired from Northern Durham High after the 1993 season. Browning said he still loved coaching and the game of football and wanted to help, but laws governing his State of North Carolina retirement prevented him from taking a full-time position. Nonetheless, Browning has enjoyed assisting Brown and the defensive staff on a part-time basis.

“I told Coach Brown I had other things I was doing, but I certainly wanted to help to get this program back to where I think it ought to be, not only in this state, but on a national scope,” Browning says, “I think this program can be a contender on a national scale.

The potential is there.”

Browning graduated from Northern Durham in 1964 and played at Guilford College, earning a degree in 1968. He coached high school football one year in Roanoke and one in Martinsville before being hired as head coach at Ledford High near High Point in 1970. Having to become a jack-of-all-trades in those early days stood Browning well over the years.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but it was a break for me that first year when I was assigned to be a jayvee coach along with being a varsity assistant,” Browning says. “Then the next year, I was the only coach on defense full-time on that side of the ball. And my first year at Ledford, they had won two games in four years and every coach was gone. I was the only coach that first year.

“As a result, I wound up having to coach a lot of positions I had not played or coached. It helped broaden my knowledge base of the whole game. I think sometimes guys can specialize so much early in their career, they kind of get pigeon-holed. Sometimes when you’re on your own like I was, you have to dig in and figure it out one way or the other.”

Browning says his mother was a teacher and his father a good teacher with his children on the farm.

“Coaching seemed to come easy to me,” he says. “My parents were important, and I was blessed to have good high school coaches. Then in college, I had a couple where I thought, ‘Well, this is not how I want to do this. You have to learn how not to do some things, and that’s as important sometimes as how-to.”

Browning became a close lifelong friend with fellow Guilford College player Allen Brown in the 1960s. Brown went on to a legendary career at Thomasville High— winning four state titles over 33 years—and through the 1970s and ‘80s Browning and Brown traveled to countless clinics, college spring practices and even NFL training camps. Browning remembers trips to the Washington Redskins training camp in Carlisle, Pa., under head coach Joe Gibbs as being watershed events in the evolution of both coaches.

“We would ride up there and spend a week,” he says. “You could stay in a dorm and watch that old 16 millimeter film all night if you wanted. Neither of us was a guy who said, ‘This is the NFL, we can’t do this in high school.’ Our attitude was to learn every element, for example, of the counter-trey the Redskins were using and do it at our level every bit as good. And we did. The counter-trey we ran at Northern was exactly the same play the Redskins ran.”

Browning was also struck watching the coaching style and demeanor of Gibbs, the Redskins’ head coach who won three Super Bowls from 1981-92.

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“I TOLD COACH BROWN I HAD OTHER THINGS I WAS DOING, BUT I CERTAINLY WANTED TO HELP TO GET THIS PROGRAM BACK TO WHERE I THINK IT OUGHT TO BE, NOT ONLY IN THIS STATE, BUT ON A NATIONAL SCOPE. I THINK THIS PROGRAM CAN BE A CONTENDER ON A NATIONAL SCALE. THE POTENTIAL IS THERE.”

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“He never raised his voice,” Browning says. “You could be there a week and not hear it. But the players knew what he expected. The standards had been set.”

At some point, both Browning and Brown had an important revelation: “For learning to take place, it must be important for the student and the teacher,” Browning says.

“We have both used that. A lot of people miss that point. It has to be important to both parties.”

Browning was head coach at Northern Durham for 18 years, compiling a 214-56-6 record and winning the 1993 state 4A championship. The Knights were 43-2 his last three years. Mack Brown actually approached him about the Tar Heels’ offensive line job after the 1989 season as a backup in the event that Brown’s first choice for the job, Whitey Jordan, didn’t take the job. But Jordan did come to Carolina and coached three years, and Brown went back to Browning in 1993 after defensive tackles coach Dan Brooks left for Tennessee.

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“FOR LEARNING TO TAKE PLACE, IT MUST BE IMPORTANT FOR THE STUDENT AND THE TEACHER. WE HAVE BOTH USED THAT. A LOT OF PEOPLE MISS THAT POINT. IT HAS TO BE IMPORTANT TO BOTH PARTIES.” Query Browning’s players and colleagues over his time at Carolina and they agree he had an innate ability to simplify and be patient with players until the light bulb popped on.

“He had a way of breaking things down to the smallest element and making it easy for anyone to digest,” Sims says. “He could coach any position, coach anybody. That has been his gift.”

Dunn played quarterback at West Henderson High and arrived at Carolina in 2001 with the idea of walking on. They put him at tight end, where Browning was coaching. He lettered in 2003 and then an injury forced him out of the game. He became a graduate assistant, and over 15 years

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his coaching career has taken him to LSU and Maryland in college ball, the Bears and Jets of the NFL, and to the Huskies’ staff in 2018 as offensive coordinator and associate head coach.

“I came in wide-eyed and having no idea what college football was all about,” Dunn says. “You see all these personalities of the coaches, and honestly, the first thing that stuck out to me with Coach Browning was, ‘Man, this guy is different.’ He genuinely cares about people and is a teacher in every sense of the word.

“There’s an old saying in coaching, ‘They don’t care what you know unless they know you care.’ That’s his deal.

That’s something I have taken and tried to remember every stop I’ve made.”

John Shoop was quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under Butch Davis from 2007-10.

He’d coached more than a decade in the NFL but soon became convinced that “Ken Browning has forgotten more football that

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I’d ever know.” Shoop, now living in Asheville with his family and no longer a full-time coach, remembers Browning’s attention to the details like proper footwork and his skill in adjusting to different running and striding styles among tailbacks like Johnny White and Shaun Draughn.

“Johnny was a short-strider, and his timing and tempo were different from Shaun, who was a long strider,” Shoop says. “If you don’t recognize those differences and account for them, the timing of the back hitting the hole can be completely different from one guy to the next. Ken individualized his coaching so that each guy really hit the hole at the same time. That’s something that never had crossed my mind.

“The nuance he brought to the game was remarkable. That comes from years and years of wisdom.”

Bobby Rome played running back from 2006-09 and Browning was his position coach the last three of those years. He remembers

“YOU SEE ALL THESE PERSONALITIES OF THE COACHES, AND HONESTLY, THE FIRST THING THAT STUCK OUT TO ME WITH COACH BROWNING WAS, ‘MAN, THIS GUY IS DIFFERENT.’ HE GENUINELY CARES ABOUT PEOPLE AND IS A TEACHER IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD.”

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THE RAMS CLUB

his senior season when he was dogged by a severe bout with the flu, lost 30 pounds and missed a month of the season. Browning suggested he stay engaged by helping break down film and coach the younger running backs.

“He told me I might not be much value physically until I got my weight back, but I still had a lot to offer,” says Rome, today the head coach at Virginia University at Lynchburg. “He picked my spirits up. I studied protections and different techniques for the various running plays. I saw how a game plan was put together.

That expanded my mind as a football player. That’s what got me into coaching.”

Rome is told that Browning was doing for him exactly what Ernie Martin had done for Browning four decades before.

A pause on the other end.

“Man …”

Another pause.

“I’ll tell you this. He reached out to me when I got this job,” Rome says of taking the Dragons’ job in 2018 after the team was winless in 2017 and outscored by more than 300 points. “He asked me how I would approach the situation. He said, ‘Let me give you a bit of advice.

Go in there with love. That’s a tough situation. I’m telling you, you’ll be surprised how hard those kids will play for you. The kids there, they’ve been through so much, go in there with love, that’s what they need.’”

Something clicked in Lynchburg, where Rome has on his staff former Tar Heels Kentwan Palmer and Erik Highsmith, as the team won four games in 2018.

“Not everyone has had a Coach Browning in their lives,” he says. “Those of us who have are fortunate.”

Or, as John Dunn says, “I would bet a hundred people call him on Father’s Day. He’s been that important in a whole bunch of lives.”

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A RELENTLESS DREAM WOMEN’S TENNIS ALUM HALEY HEMM IS COMMITTED TO HER VISION OF EDUCATION

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BY JOHN BAUMAN

PHOTOS BY HALEY HEMM

When high school teacher Haley Hemm’s students come to school in the morning, they aren’t just stepping into a classroom. They are walking into a Dream Room—a supportive, welcoming environment that allows them to feel safe, think freely and dream big.

It’s a moniker and a philosophy Hemm picked up while teaching in the Dominican Republic after graduating from UNC and finishing up her career on the women’s tennis team. She’s brought the Dream Room idea with her to every school she’s taught at since.

“As for a definition of the Dream Room, there really is no single definition because honestly, it’s more of a feeling,” she explained. “I introduce the Dream Room as a microcosm of the imagined world we want to live in; I say if we can do it in here, we can do it out there.

“It is a place that honors past, present and future students and their values and ambitions. It is a place to discover knowledge of the world, its people and places through literature, but more importantly a place to develop self-awareness and selflove, in order to better love others.”

Her journey towards fostering this special learning environment for her students started with a tennis racket and Hemm’s experiences as a student-athlete at North Carolina.

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finished her freshman season, in 2008-09, with a 7-3 singles record and an 8-5 doubles record. In the 2010-11 season, her junior year, Hemm’s tennis career started young. the Tar Heels won the ACC Championship for the first time under “My dad put a racket in my hand at the age of one and so I was Kalbas. Hemm finished with a 15-13 singles record, a 13-9 mark in kind of destined to be a tennis player,” she said. “I was competing at doubles action and hoisted a championship trophy with the help of tournaments by the time I was six or seven years old.” her teammates.

She grew up in California and in an area of the country where “One of the most memorable ones was winning the ACC most of the top tennis players play high school tennis. So, Hemm Tournament for the first time,” she said. “My best friend, Shinann joined the tennis team and sharpened her skills against the stout Featherston, who was also my year, she was the last one on the competition. court. And I can’t remember if it was the third set or tiebreaker, but “That kind of reinspired my love of tennis—I was getting pretty she gutted it out. And I think there’s a stock burned out by the time I was 13 or 14,” she photo of it somewhere, but I’m the first one said. “So I played on my high school tennis to run and give her a hug to win the ACC team and was able to compete with some of “I visited UNC one summer, and Championship. That will always be one of my the best players who also decided to play high school tennis.” (when) I stepped on campus, and I favorite memories.”

These days, Hemm doesn’t play too much Hemm had a prolific prep career. She was a felt like that’s where I was tennis anymore. She hopes to rediscover the four-year letter winner in high school at Sacred meant to be.” game soon or get more involved with her old Heart Prep and a two-time team captain. high school again, but she’s staying busy with Hemm worked to become the 2006 Central her new passion—teaching.

Coast Section doubles champion and the 2006 West Catholic “If I didn’t find such a meaningful career then I’d be playing a lot Athletic League MVP. more tennis,” Hemm said. “But teaching has really replaced tennis College teams soon came calling. Hemm received interest from all in my heart.” kinds of different top tennis programs around the country, but the And just as North Carolina allowed Hemm to find success on decision came down to Stanford and North Carolina. The Cardinals the tennis court, it’s also where she discovered and cultivated her were the hometown program—Hemm grew up just minutes away passions for being in the classroom. from the pristine and prestigious Stanford campus. But she listened to the messages sent by head women’s tennis coach Brian Kalbas A NEW PATH and felt the call to Chapel Hill in her heart.

Coming into UNC, Hemm never thought in a million years that she “I visited UNC one summer, and (when) I stepped on campus, and would find fulfillment as a teacher.

I felt like that’s where I was meant to be,” she said. “But it was my “I thought the last thing in the world that I wanted to do was be a coach, Brian Kalbas, he was the one who really made me fall in love teacher,” she said. “My high school teachers told me, ‘Oh Haley, you with the school and feel like UNC was the right choice for me.” should be a teacher.’ And I was like, ‘I’m going to be a doctor or a lawyer.’

Hemm had a productive tennis career for the Tar Heels. She

SUCCESS ON THE COURT

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And in college, my goal was to work for the United Nations, so I started off as a global studies major.”

However, the winds started to shift right as Hemm took on the role of community outreach leader for the UNC tennis team. That role led her to her first experiences in a classroom as an instructor, which opened her eyes to the power of that role.

“I took on some tutoring at Frank Porter Graham in Carrboro,” she said. “(It was the) third and fourth grade, which obviously I don’t teach now. But I just remember getting back in the classroom there and helping them to learn how to read and write. And it sparked something in me. And I’d always loved English, but because I thought I was going to work for the UN one day, I thought that wasn’t the path I was going to go down. So my junior year, volunteering at that school and realizing that I really missed literature, and all the universal truths that it teaches, I picked up my second major, which was English.”

Hemm built on this experience with another amazing one through the organization called “Coach for College.” It’s an international service learning program that was started by an ACC athlete. Coach for College brings together student-athletes from around the country, pairs them with a Vietnamese university student and allows them to teach academics, sports, and life skills at summer camps to disadvantaged children.

She spent some time in July and August of 2011 in Hoa An, Vietnam, teaching English and tennis. It was a transformative experience.

“That opportunity—teaching tennis, teaching leadership, teaching English—that was when I was like, ‘Oh man, I am meant for this, like I’m very good at this, I love this, this is where I’m supposed to be.’

“So that Coach for College opportunity really solidified at the end of my junior year that I wanted to be a teacher.”

UNC continued to provide opportunities for Hemm to grow into the teacher that she is today. One morning after practice and a class, Hemm stepped into the Great Hall of the Student Union for an Education Fair.

Sweaty and tired after practice, Hemm must have looked out of place.

But she bravely found another opportunity.

“I’m walking around and everyone is in suits and ties and dressed in heels—I’m super out of place but I know that I’ve just got to shoot my shot, even though I’m so underdressed,” she said. “And I find a table that’s for a private school in the Dominican Republic. And I talk to the English coordinator for 20 minutes and she hires me on the spot.”

Hemm spent two years as an English teacher at Colegio Bilingüe New Horizons in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Even though the school was a fairly affluent private school, the DR is still one of the bottom five education systems in the world. Hemm had to adjust her expectations and deal with unique challenges like learning how to speak Spanish after taking Latin and Swahili throughout her whole life.

But, it was an invaluable learning experience.

“I would say it was a struggle for me to reconcile my expectations of what a school should look like and how a school should run, what values there should be, family involvement,” she said. “But I would say I learned more from my students than they probably learned from me.”

THE NEXT STEPS

Hemm taught in the Dominican Republic until July of 2014, when she

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BORN & BRED

MAKING A CONNECTION: Hemm took her students to watch fellow Tar Heel José Hernández play for the Dominican Republic national team.

returned closer to home and taught eighth-graders at Saint Lawrence Elementary & Middle School in Santa Clara, Calif.

This spring, she’s finishing up the school year in Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School of San Jose. She teaches English to 10th and 12th graders while serving a historically disadvantaged and underresourced community.

In the fall of 2019, she will be heading to Stanford to get her master’s in education: policy, organization, and leadership studies (POLS). She hopes to soak in as much knowledge as possible from the school she grew up just a couple blocks from. Then, she has bigger plans—taking the environment she’s built in her own classrooms and multiplying its positive effect through what she wants to call The Dream School.

“The big vision is to turn the Dream Room into The Dream School,” Hemm said. “So ultimately, I would love to found my own school, and that’s why I’m going back to grad school. To work towards that vision of a dream school.”

In order to accomplish that big goal, she’ll continue to lean on the experiences she had at North Carolina.

Hemm credits the Carolina Leadership Academy for giving her the blueprint towards becoming a successful leader—then allowing her the space to practice and learn how to execute that plan. She points to the relationships with student-athlete support staff members like Cricket Lane and Shelley Johnson for her success in her post-athletic endeavors.

And the experiences Hemm had on the court and under the guidance of Coach Kalbas, who she still considers as a second father figure, have also played an important role in her development.

“My senior year (on the tennis team), we decided to have individual values,” Hemm said. “So instead of working towards goals, we wanted to embody a value every day. And mine was relentless. And I would say that relentlessness has come with me everywhere I’ve gone. And that’s 100 percent thanks to tennis.”

It’s Hemm’s Tar Heel-brand of relentlessness that will hopefully turn a Dream Room into a Dream School one day.

ramsclub.com 21

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C A R O L I N A E V E R YWE A R Rams Club members like to wear their Carolina Blue, and they’ll wear it all over the US and the world. If you have a photo of you in your Carolina gear in front of notable landmarks in the US and abroad, send them our way to be a part of Carolina EveryWear!

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BORN & BRED

To have your photo included: -Send your photo digitally to bornandbred@ramsclub.com.

-Identify everyone in your photo and the location of the photo.

Here are the “Rules”: -At least one person in the photo has to be a Rams Club member -You must be wearing Carolina gear -You must be in front of a notable landmark (sorry, as cool as Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center are, they don’t qualify).

SHOW US YOUR COLORS!

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1) George El-Khouri & Brian Spencer of Chapel Hill in the Old Souk of Tripoli, Lebanon; 2) Mary & Nikole Nickerson of Mebane, NC, at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy; 3) Stephanie Beckes Hunter of Falls Church, VA, at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Flagstaff, AZ; 4) Katherine, Douglas & Duncan Kelly of Falls Church, VA, in Valetta, Malta; 5) Heather & Nabil Salameh of Charlotte, NC, in Capri, Italy, in the Blue Grotto; 6) Charlie Caldwell, Tom Ozment, Joy Bird, Tom Bird & Ernie Murphrey from Jamestown, NC, at Notre Dame; 7) Scott Gunn of Raleigh, NC, with his new wife, Katherine, on their honeymoon at Wai’anapanapa State Park on Maui, HI 8) David Chapman & Bonnie Richardson of Charlotte, NC, on top of Canyons Village in Park City, UT; 9) Christy, Caleb, Carolina & Chris Holland of Clayton, NC, at the Alamo in San Antonio, TX; 10) Jason, Ginger, Mary & Alice Tomberlin of Cary, NC, with Wes, Julie, Katie & Abby Galbos at the the Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, South Holland, Netherlands; 11) Rob & Kerri McMillen of Raleigh, NC, at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France; 12) John Dunlap of Concord, NC, with Jake & Katie at the ram carving at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando; 13) Eva Chang Meyer at the Sacre Coeur in Paris, France; 14) Rodney Lyn Keller & Kelly Farabee Keller of High Point, NC, at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy; 15) Alan Harer & Tom Worth of Raleigh, NC, came across a local villager wearing UNC gear in Camino de Santiago in northern Spain; 16) Rick & Pat Adams of Rocky Mount, NC, at the Bay of Pigs Museum Playa Girón, Cuba; 17) Jeff Fowler of Winston-Salem, NC, with Charlie Key, Scott Fulton & Kim Strohacker at an Indians game in Cleveland, OH

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TEACHFO Carolina Leadership Academy

OutwardBoun

TEACHTHEWORLD Teach for America program offers global opportunities

By John Bauman Photos by Jeffrey Camarati

Living Classroom

SquashWise 24

BORN & BRED

RAMERIC C

ricket Lane always sees evidence of Tar Heels helping other Tar Heels.

As the assistant athletic director for student-

athlete development at UNC, Lane works hand in

hand with students as they develop on and off the field during their time at North Carolina. Then, she

stays connected with them as they grow and do great

d

things in the world. She sees firsthand the positive impacts that Tar Heels can have for each other.

“It happens over and over and over,” she said.

“When our students move to a new city and they may

not know anyone, but if we have some alums there, they connect. It really is a family. I love it.”

That network of Tar Heels helping other Tar Heels

is evident on campus and in cities all across America.

It’s also evident in the choices that UNC studentathletes make with how they spend their time in the community and with their careers.

For example, over the years, North Carolina has a proud tradition of sending Tar Heel student-athletes to

go work for Teach for America. Teach For America is a nonprofit organization that recruits young people and sends them to teach for at least two years in under-resourced public schools all across America.

Acacia Cosentino is a former UNC gymnast who started with Teach for America in Henderson, North

Carolina. A number of UNC volleyball players have also participated in the Teach for America program.

Another is Tar Heel field hockey alum Carey Fetting-Smith. She had a prolific career in Carolina blue. Her

freshman season, in 2001, she won the Ken and Cheryl Williams Rookie of the Year Award. Her junior year,

playing as a midfield/back for head coach Karen Shelton, she scored eight goals and added four assists in 22 starts. As an upperclassman, she won the Carmen and Michael Hooker Leadership Award in 2003 and 2004 for her leadership efforts. She looks back fondly on her memories as a student-athlete.

“The opportunity to compete for Carolina and be

coached by Karen Shelton all four of those years

and learn so much from her, as a student-athlete,

ms

but also as a leader – I always say, I rely on the

things I learned from Coach Shelton every day of

my life. Both professionally, but also in my own home, trying to raise my three daughters,” FettingSmith said.

Her senior year, when Fetting-Smith was a team

captain, UNC won the ACC championship. Those

2004 Tar Heels defeated Maryland 3-1 in the championship after getting past Wake Forest in a

2-1 overtime game in the semifinals. Fetting-Smith

THAT NETWORK OF TAR HEELS HELPING OTHER TAR HEELS IS EVIDENT ON CAMPUS AND IN CITIES ALL ACROSS AMERICA. IT’S ALSO EVIDENT IN THE CHOICES THAT UNC STUDENT-ATHLETES MAKE WITH HOW THEY SPEND THEIR TIME IN THE COMMUNITY AND WITH THEIR CAREERS.

The Carolina Way ramsclub.com 25

MENTORS

TEACHFO remembers how the field hockey team got an assist from a Tar Heel legend that season.

“As a team, we got together and committed to

basically following Dean Smith’s “The Carolina Way” approach to student-athlete leadership and

development,” Fetting-Smith said. “We all read the book, The Carolina Way by Dean Smith. And I wrote

Carolina Leadership Academy Dean a letter about what we were doing – we were all reading (the book) and sharing out, each week, in these weekly team meetings, a debrief of each

chapter. And he wrote me back this letter that I still

keep today about how proud he was of the team and how he’d be following our progress and reminding us to focus on the process and not obsess with the

OutwardBoun

outcome. So that was awesome.”

Fetting-Smith also attended UNC in the early days

of the Carolina Leadership Academy. Now officially titled The Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership

Academy, this organization prides itself on being the

premier

leadership

development

program

Leadership

Academy,

remembers

how

helpful

Fetting-Smith was in getting the organization going.

“She was definitely a leader, especially when it came

in collegiate athletics. UNC student-athletes get

to field hockey. I don’t want to make her sound so

the opportunity to practice that leadership amongst

at motivating. I think her teammates understood she

coaching on how to become great leaders, then get their peers.

Lane, who worked to help start up the Carolina

old, but kind of the mom (of the team). She was great had a really good head on her shoulders,” Lane said.

“Our leadership academy was very young when she

Living Classroom “WE ALL READ THE BOOK, THE CAROLINA WAY BY DEAN SMITH. AND I WROTE DEAN A LETTER ABOUT WHAT WE WERE DOING...

AND HE WROTE ME BACK THIS LETTER THAT I STILL KEEP TODAY ABOUT HOW PROUD HE WAS OF THE TEAM AND HOW HE’D BE FOLLOWING OUR PROGRESS AND REMINDING US TO FOCUS ON THE PROCESS AND NOT OBSESS WITH THE OUTCOME.”

was here so it was really great to get input from our

student-athletes at that time on what was working, and I think she was really helpful in helping us be better.”

Fetting-Smith took all the lessons she learned from

field hockey, from the Carolina Leadership Academy

and from her coursework into her first job out of college with Teach for America. After graduating in

2005, she went to teach at P.S. 202, an underserved public school in Brooklyn.

“We had a population at the school that was

99 percent free and reduced lunch, students all coming from the immediate neighborhood but a

neighborhood that definitely was and is facing a lot

of challenges. Nearly every student was living below

SquashWise 26

BORN & BRED

the poverty line,” Fetting-Smith said.

RAMERIC “I worked in a special education classroom teaching

field, in a student government capacity, running a

“TEACH FOR AMERICA BELIEVES THAT WITH THE RIGHT TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, THE SAME TENANTS THAT MAKE YOU A SUCCESSFUL LEADER PERHAPS ON THE ATHLETIC FIELD, IN A STUDENT GOVERNMENT CAPACITY, RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS, A LARGE BUSINESS, THESE ARE THE SAME TENANTS THAT MAKE FOR A GREAT EDUCATOR, MAKE FOR A GREAT TEACHER.”

tenants that make for a great educator, make for a

She’s even trying to start her own charitable

second and third-grade students and the bulk of my

students had what is called emotional disturbances, so a lot of behavior challenges and problems due to some very significant challenges that the students had faced in their home lives.”

She taught there for two years, then taught in Harlem

and even worked on staff for Teach for America for

a time. While teaching in these classrooms, FettingSmith leaned on her experiences in Chapel Hill.

“Something that really drew me to Teach for America

is this whole notion of teaching as leadership,” she

said. “And Teach for America believes that with the

d

right training and development, the same tenants that

make you a successful leader perhaps on the athletic small business, a large business, these are the same great teacher. So I relied so much on the things that I

learned both at the leadership academy and then just playing for Coach Shelton on the athletic field.”

After her Teach for America experiences, Fetting-

Smith didn’t stop her mission of helping others

through the power of a good education. These days,

ms

she resides in Baltimore with her husband and three

daughters. But she’s kept up the mission of helping her city grow by building up its education system.

“I’ve definitely since Teach for America committed

my professional career to the mission of ensuring all children in our country have access to an excellent

public education,” she said. “I’ve continued my work as an ed-reformer. Here in Baltimore, I work as an

instructional coach at two neighborhood charter

schools, so I support and develop middle school teachers at two schools in East Baltimore.”

Currently,

she

also

works

with

charitable

organization SquashWise, which helps develop Baltimore’s youth through the game of squash, and Outward Bound, which helps youth all around the

country through unique outdoor expeditions and experiences.

organization that uses the game that she loves, field hockey, as a vehicle for positive change.

“I’m trying to start my own organization where

I provide field hockey opportunities to girls in East

Baltimore and it’s going well,” she said. “It’s moving slowly but I was able to provide free camps last

summer, a series of free clinics in partnership with

USA Field Hockey and a great community-based organization here called Living Classrooms. And we had a small league this past fall with about 25 girls from East Baltimore where we helped the girls learn

the sport of field hockey, and enjoy the benefits of being active and playing on a team.”

Cricket Lane loves to watch Tar Heels helping Tar

Heels. But more broadly, she can also see evidence of Tar Heels helping others. Fetting-Smith embodies the principles of a Tar Heel doing just that.

Through Fetting-Smith’s growth as a member

of the field hockey program, development in the Carolina Leadership Academy and experiences as an

educator through Teach for America, she’s developed

into a Tar Heel who not only helps other Tar Heels but a change-maker who is helping the world.

The Carolina Way ramsclub.com 27

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THE RAMS CLUB FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE RAMS CLUB, VISIT RAMSCLUB.COM 28

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MENTORS

stickstheci ty in

Carolina men’s and women’s lacrosse programs benefit from New York City connections

BY ANDREW STILWELL // PHOTOS BY KARA CANNIZARRO

W

hen 2013 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and Patterson Award-winner Kara Cannizarro came back to Carolina as Director of Engagement and Development for the women’s lacrosse program in August of 2017, she felt there was one thing missing that would make the lacrosse program “complete” in every way.

“I met so many amazing alumni postgraduation, all who wanted to help me and other recent graduates succeed,” Cannizzaro said. “It only made sense to formalize it and capitalize on our network.

“We decided that it would be an awesome opportunity if we could coordinate an effort to bring our current student athletes to the ‘working world’ of New York City so that they could experience different industries

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BORN & BRED

and start to understand where they wanted to work postgrad,” she continued.

“After we had that idea, it was presented, and everyone was excited about it, so I started reaching out to prominent alumni in the New York City area. It was really well received.”

During the past two fall breaks, members of the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs have traveled to New York City to meet and network with multiple lacrosse alumni from both programs who work in the city.

The “pipeline” of UNC lacrosse to New York City has existed for many years, but it has become more “formalized” during these recent trips. Men’s lacrosse alumnus and 1988 graduate John Moore, Chairman and CEO of The Marwood Group, noted that

he has hired multiple interns from UNC for nearly 20 years.

“I’m a big believer in the internship program,” Moore said. “Over the last few years, with Kara, Jenny [Levy] and Joe [Breschi], we’ve just kind of joined forces, and been able to more ‘high profile’ it for the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams. It’s a three-legged stool. You’ve got the athletics, the academics, and the experiential learning. It all handshakes really well.”

Women’s lacrosse head coach Jenny Levy realizes the importance as well.

“By formalizing the program, it became clear that this sort of engagement with alums was very powerful,” said Levy. “It created new relationships, connections and mentoring opportunities for our student athletes and alums. It is an organic way to

connect the past and present of our program in a transformational way.

“There is so much pride when you are a student-athlete at North Carolina because the traditions of success and the overall standards of excellence are in the fabric of all you do. Continuing to grow this culture after graduation through connecting our student athletes with our alums for career opportunities creates a deeper and lifelong connection to Carolina,” Levy continued.

During the two-day trip, the student athletes visited companies including Bank of America, Google, The Marwood Group, Oath and Goldman Sachs; attended a 90-minute networking session with New York City-area alumni at Wells Fargo; and were treated to one of the “toughest workouts in New York” with an early-morning session at ToneHouse by women’s lacrosse class of 2012 alumna Laura Zimmerman.

For Zimmerman, who works in Credit Sales for Bank of AmericaMerrill Lynch’s Global Markets, the opportunity to “give back” to current student athletes is extremely rewarding.

“I had a fantastic experience overall when I was at UNC, and I love being involved and ‘hands-on’ in these networking sessions, because I want to be able to help future student athletes and future students at UNC, in order to get into some of the best positions we have to offer, whether it’s here, or in another industry. I just want to be able to help provide guidance,” she said.

“It’s really fun for me, because I loved my time at Carolina, and I love living in New York City now. I love being able to give a picture of what it is to be a Carolina alum in New York,” Zimmerman continued.

“I love selling them on the experience. Taking them to a 6 a.m. workout, being up at 5:15-5:30 in the morning, and seeing how busy the streets are, and then racing to work after that hour’s workout. I love displaying to them that this is what it means to be in the ‘rat race’ and ‘the grind,’ and how hard we work, and how it pays off in other ways. It’s really exciting.”

“A Recruiting Opportunity” The networking trip and professional alumni base has become a big recruiting point for the Carolina coaching staffs, largely in part to the alumni’s willingness to mentor the “next generation” of Carolina Lacrosse.

“When we’re recruiting kids and their families, parents will wonder if it’s a ‘four-year commitment for my son’ or a ‘40 year commitment for my son.’ I think that’s why we sell the fact that our alumni are so invested in our players’ futures as much as we are,” said men’s lacrosse head coach Joe Breschi. “Sure, you’re going to get a tremendous four-year education, a tremendous four-year lacrosse experience, but most importantly, it’s going to be a 40-year investment in your son’s life and future. We can show the networking opportunities and the abundant alumni network that is throughout the country and

beyond that will available to their son.

“For alumni to still have their ‘hands in the cookie jar,’ so to speak, and to have that connection with Chapel Hill based on their experiences they’ve had here, and the chance to give back to the program that made such a great impact on their lives is just an unbelievable feeling,” Breschi continued. “That’s why we started this opportunity, not only to expand the recruiting opportunities for men’s and women’s lacrosse, but also to continue to cultivate the relationship with the alumni and the program.”

The alumni agree.

“I talk to Coach Breschi about it all the time. It’s a great recruiting tool, understanding that you have this professional network that people can plug into,” said Jonathan Fox, managing director for the Marwood Group, and 1997 UNC men’s lacrosse captain. “Parents and kids both are a little bit more ‘heads up’ with what happens after school. It can be a powerful tool. Things like that bring the alumni closer and gives us another reason to cheer for the kids when you

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MENTORS

get to know them. At the end of the day it all nets positive for the program.”

“More Than Networking” In addition to the mentorship from alumni, lacrosse studentathletes get to do a little mentoring of their own during these trips, by putting on a youth lacrosse clinic in Harlem.

“I think we preach, as men’s lacrosse and women’s lacrosse programs, the opportunities that these student-athletes have, to give back,” Breschi said. “To give back to the sport that has meant so much to them, and afforded them the opportunities to play at a place like the University of North Carolina.”

“The opportunity is there to give back to Harlem Lacrosse, by having the chance to touch the lives of these kids in Harlem, who maybe have picked up a stick for the first time and maybe they’re seeing that there’s opportunities in this game. It was enlightening for our student athletes and the coaches to go and make an impact, a small impact, but certainly make a difference in the day of giving back to the youth in Harlem.”

For the student athletes who attended the trip, the Harlem lacrosse clinic was one of highlights of the trip.

“I’ve done that clinic two years in a row now. It was amazing just seeing what the name UNC Lacrosse – men’s or women’s - meant to these young kids in a struggling neighborhood in Harlem. It meant a lot to us to be able to help them and use lacrosse as an outlet to

32

BORN & BRED

make their lives better,” said junior attackman Mike Guerlin.

“The clinic was probably the most interesting and heartwarming thing I’ve honestly ever done,” said freshman midfielder Brooke Rooney. “The girls were so excited to see us. They almost made us feel famous in a way.

“They were so excited just to use our sticks, which was something I took for granted a little bit,” she continued. “I think they actually mentored me in certain ways just with how grateful they are. That was one of the first experiences I’ve ever had where I just took a step back and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I should be more like them.’”

A Really Extended Family Everyone involved with the lacrosse program, from student athletes, to coaches, to alumni, wants to continue to foster the networking and mentorship that is gained by these networking trips.

“Our motto for the program is Family. Academics. Lacrosse. In that order,” Breschi explained. “When we recruit, they’re going to be a part of a really extended special family that reaches well beyond the lacrosse program. It’s the university. It’s the athletic department.

It’s all those who have come before you and the far-reaching alumni that continue to open their arms to all student athletes. The family

“

“Our motto for the program is Family. Academics.

Lacrosse. In that order. When we recruit, they’re going to be a part of a really extended special family that reaches well beyond the lacrosse program.” aspect is preached, but most importantly, it’s lived.”

The student athletes and alumni both agree.

“Being a part of the UNC family, specifically lacrosse, is something both current players and former players really enjoy and grab on to,” Guerlin said. “It means the world knowing that we have a support system that goes beyond our four years at Carolina. We know that being a Tar Heel is something really meaningful, and something that a lot of people take very seriously in the workplace.”

“During the networking event, we get a pretty good alumni turnout,” Fox said. “It’s a great time for us to all get together. When we get together, we all talk about how we need to do it more often, and by hosting this trip, it gives the alumni a fantastic reason to do so.”

ramsclub.com 33

THE

COMPLETE

EXPERIENCE MORGAN GOETZ WON A NATIONAL TITLE WHILE ALSO DEVELOPING A UNIQUE PATH IN A DIFFICULT FIELD

BY MARGARET HIGH PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI

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BORN & BRED

M

Morgan Goetz stands as a crowd of Carolina scholar-athletes murmur.

Usually she gets this response on the field hockey pitch, where she’s been a starter for the past three years.

Today it’s because she’s graduating with a GPA that is one of the five highest among female student-athletes at Carolina. She plans to attend Harvard in the fall for a PhD in bioengineering.

While Goetz’s accolades in school and athletics are impressive by themselves – she’s a member of Phi Beta Kappa and won a national championship – her success has been largely dependent on her relationship with mentors and advisors over the years.

Since her sophomore year at UNC, Goetz has met regularly with Dr. Frances Ligler, a renowned biochemist and bioengineer, and recent inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“With Dr. Ligler, I really just lucked out,” Goetz says. “I looked up her name and it’s ridiculous. I was so intimidated. But I was like, ‘She’s here, she’s available to me and she’s been my most effective resource in college.’”

Goetz and Ligler would meet when their schedules synced up to talk about more than biomedical engineering and post-grad plans. Ligler

attention type questions.”

The same can be said for Goetz on the field, where head coach Karen Shelton saw her potential as a member of the Carolina field hockey team. Despite starting club field hockey years later than some of her teammates, Goetz learned the game quickly and made up for lost time.

She always knew she wanted to play a sport in college, and usually it was whatever sport was in season, like soccer, lacrosse, or track and field. UNC was always the dream but never on her radar, Goetz says. It wasn’t until her club coach told her she had potential to play for Shelton that she actually saw her dream could be realized.

“You can think that you have a lot of potential and people can say you have a lot of potential,” Goetz says.

“But unless you try to do something about it, then potential doesn’t mean anything.”

Realizing her potential became part of Shelton’s

played field hockey in high school and kept up with Goetz’s national championship run this past fall. With the mix of coffee, sports, research and life, the two minds became more than just mentor, mentee but genuinely friends.

Goetz’s name has become immutable from UNC’s biomedical engineering program, one of the most challenging majors offered at the University. Teachers took notice of her eagerness in learning the material and subsequent mastery of it.

Dr. Naji Husseini says Goetz quickly stood out in his sophomore level classroom of 70 to 85 students.

“It was a fairly large class but early on people start to differentiate themselves, usually by asking questions,” Husseini says. “And that was her. They were really astute questions, not just kind of were you paying

mission the past four years, as well as Ligler’s for the past two.

While competing for a national championship this past fall, Goetz was also working on developing relationships with graduate school professors in order to secure her place at their university. The biomedical engineering post-graduate process relies heavily on finding a certain professor in a program whose research is compatible with the student’s interests, but also relies on the traditional application process to get into the university’s graduate schools.

“It was hard to be like, ‘Okay, I’m going to do all this extra stuff on the side in addition to the year,’” Goetz

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“YOU CAN THINK THAT YOU HAVE A LOT OF POTENTIAL

AND PEOPLE CAN SAY YOU HAVE A LOT OF POTENTIAL.

BUT UNLESS YOU TRY TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT,

POTENTIAL DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING.” says. “I was way more mentally engaged in my senior field hockey season. It was harder my last season because I wanted the national championship so bad that it was difficult to separate myself.”

That’s when Goetz’s relationship with Ligler, Husseini and Shelton came into full force. While Ligler was helping write letters of recommendations and connecting Goetz to some of her colleagues, Husseini was helping Goetz schedule the required biomedical engineering courses with her demanding practice schedule, and Shelton was allowing some flexibility with practice to let Goetz get it all done.

Shelton knew how academically engaged Goetz was and had to acquiesce to class at times during Goetz’s career. But for her senior year, Shelton was able to reap the benefits of developing Goetz as a field hockey player. The internal drive to succeed never faltered; it only took Shelton providing the right program for Goetz to help deliver an undefeated season.

At the same time, Ligler was connecting Goetz to Dr. Samir Mitragotri at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In between class, practice and homework, Goetz was developing a relationship at the direction of Ligler.

“She’s going to work with a friend of mine who is one of the most outstanding people in the country,” Ligler says. “He is the youngest person ever inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in the bioengineering section, and just a super, super nice person.”

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Throughout it all, Husseini made sure Goetz completed her major.

“I think in most cases, under the right guidance, having an athletic experience will enhance your academic experience,” Husseini says.

“I did tell Morgan at some point you’re going to have to choose biomedical engineering or field hockey. By junior year, it’d have to be one or the other. And she definitely made me eat my words.”

Behind the hours of watching field hockey film, completing physics homework and conducting lab research with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Goetz had the valuable support of a mentor, academic advisor and coach.

Those relationships reached further than their respective fields, especially after Goetz’s mother was diagnosed with leukemia in December of her sophomore year. It was another reason Goetz’s interest in science and medicine had a personal touch. A few years prior, Goetz’s older sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 13. Her grandfather was an oncologist. Her older brother has a mental disability that began showing after he was vaccinated, resulting in she and her other two siblings not being vaccinated.

Because of her family history, Goetz always knew she was interested in medicine but began gravitating toward drug distribution research instead of becoming a doctor.

“With sports and my schedule, I really had to get to the point where I was going to choose if I wanted to do the pre-med recs and

spend summers and do stuff like that, so then I really started to evaluate why I wanted to be a doctor,” Goetz says. “Then I realized I never wanted to diagnose. I wanted to be kind of in front of the field instead of moving along with it.”

Husseini helped Goetz plan both possible career paths, medical school and graduate school, which guided Goetz’s decision to pursue a PhD in bioengineering.

Ligler told Goetz about her experiences in graduate school during their meetings, allowing Goetz to see what her future would be like without the traditional path of medical school. Shelton continued to teach Goetz discipline and determination through sport, stoking the core belief of hard work and grit.

“The coaches were great,” Goetz says. “They never asked about my mother unless I brought it up. They helped me use field hockey as an escape.”

It wasn’t always easy to show up to practice, Goetz admits. At the start of junior year, her father called to say her mother had a 1 in 5 chance of not surviving the chemotherapy needed before being able to receive a bone marrow transplant. Holding back sobs, Goetz hung up the phone and completed the infamous field hockey run test.

“We all knew she was hurting. She handled it as well as she could have,” Shelton says. “I wouldn’t say it affected her performance.

She handled it great. Sometimes sports are a distraction, so that was her time to get away from thinking about it. I don’t think she carried that on the field, although I’m sure she did, but she never showed it.”

The field hockey team’s temporary placement at Duke’s practice facilities in 2017 while the new Karen Shelton Stadium was being constructed had an unintended benefit for Goetz. She would stay at Duke after practice her junior year and go to the hospital to visit her mother. While there, Goetz would see firsthand the ways chemotherapy and other drugs affected her mother.

“Throughout this time, I found solace in approaching my situation and my mom’s sickness as an opportunity to really understand what cancer treatment can look like, and how I could potentially improve it,” wrote Goetz in her personal statement sent to graduate school admissions.

As she navigated her mother’s sickness, Ligler helped her navigate graduate school, Husseini helped her navigate undergrad and Shelton helped her navigate athletics. While she could have handled these things on her own, the meaningful relationships she created in college helped lighten the load.

Even now as she’s completed the perfect field hockey season, accepted at Harvard researching under Mitragotri, and with her mother responding positively to the bone marrow transplant surgery, Goetz still anticipates keeping up with her mentors from college.

Both Husseini and Shelton say Goetz is one of the best ever in their respective program’s history. Ligler predicts Goetz will be a forerunner in the field.

Perfectly capable to excel by herself, Goetz knew to reach out to others in order to reach the next tier and those relationships have made all the difference.

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FIRST PERSON

I

‘A lifetime impact’

I’m one of the very few T.C. Roberson graduates who Buddy gave a kid hope. He gave me an opportunity to didn’t have Buddy Baldwin as my driver’s education have some bigger dreams and goals. I’ve always tried to instructor. He taught and coached at Roberson for 53 keep that in mind with my players. One time he told me, years, and I still see people regularly on the golf course “You can coach a guy and 30 years later see something or in an airport and they’ll tell me they had Coach Baldwin in him that you gave him. It’s your job to make sure it’s for driver’s ed. something positive.” I keep that in mind even now. When I did my driver’s ed with the baseball coach. But Buddy I coach a kid, I want to teach him to shoot better or box Baldwin still had an incredible impact on my life. out better so we can win games. But even today, with It started at the end of my ninth our current players every day on the grade year. My mother was doing practice court, I still remember that I everything she could for me and doing want to give them something positive the absolute best she could, but my life “But he told me, ‘You should go to for 30 years from now. at that point was not rosy. At that time, the University of North Carolina.’

Coach Baldwin was teaching United States history to 11th graders, and some He was thinking about me longof the positive things he said about me term, and he thought Carolina to his class got back to me. That was would be best for me. He was the first time in my life anyone had ever said something positive about me thinking about what would be best and given me some confidence. No one for me as an individual, and how in my family—and my mother had ten brothers and sisters and my dad had 13 an education would benefit me for brothers and sisters—had ever been to the rest of my life.” college. He made me feel like I could accomplish something.

He was always challenging me and pushing me in a very positive way. It wasn’t just a basketball relationship. He was always exposing me to other important parts of life.

When I decided to run for student body president, I went and talked to him about it.

Coach Baldwin’s influence on me was a lifetime impact. In my family, it was just expected that you would finish high school and go to work. We didn’t think about college. Coach Baldwin exposed me to a different level of education. I had opportunities to play basketball at seven ROY WILLIAMS schools. But he told me, “You should go to the University Head Coach, Men’s Basketball of North Carolina.” He was thinking about me long-term, Illustration by Jason McCorkle and he thought Carolina would be best for me. He was thinking about what would be best for me as an individual, and how an education would benefit me for the rest of my life.

After I had been the head coach at Owen High School for five years, Coach Smith gave me the opportunity to come to Carolina and be his part-time assistant. The salary was going to be $2,700 per year, and I was concerned about how I would feed my family. I talked to Coach Baldwin about it, and he told me I should take the job.

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CAROLINA INSIDER PODCAST HOSTED BY JONES ANGELL AND ADAM LUCAS

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