Creating Opportunities
October 05, 2009 10:43 AM | General
By Grant Dovey for MSNsportsNET.com
October 2, 2009
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With only 3.3 percent of all collegiate athletes actually going on to play professional sports as a career, most student-athletes start to explore their career options to prepare them for life after college sports.
However, for West Virginia University women’s soccer player Carolyn Blank, the possibilities are endless.
The senior captain has spent the better part of three and a half seasons manning the midfield for the Mountaineers, while also working towards a degree in teaching education with an emphasis in special education.
The Toms River, N.J., native is looking to work with the kids who have special needs or handicaps. The idea of special ed as a career started appeal to Blank in her sophomore year at Tom Rivers High, when she started volunteering at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
“Big Brothers Big Sisters wasn’t with special needs kids, but the kid that I worked with, I had a real one-on-one experience with him,” Blank said. “With special ed, a lot of it is one-on-one and not with the whole class. You have five kids throughout the day and each one you can spend so much time with to help them grow.”
Justin was the boy she had been mentoring for her last three years of high school his fifth through seventh grade years.
“To see him go from elementary school and getting into that intermediate school and being in that different area was great,” Blank said. “The next year he would have been in high school and just seeing how he grew up, he became more responsible with my help and a better student with my help; it was just really nice.”
Blank is especially good with these children because of her own experiences going through school at a young age and knowing the hard work that is required to continue to succeed.
“When I was in intermediate school, I wasn’t the brightest kid and still, I work hard in school. I’m in study hall almost every day, so I see that I wasn’t the brightest and I had to work extra hard, and I need to have patience with these children because they were like me,” Blank said. “I’m so thankful for those teachers now that gave me the extra time and spent the extra time with me either after or before class working on something and that’s kind of what I want to be.”
Holding Blank back from becoming a special ed teacher in the immediate future is the thought of playing professional soccer in the one year old Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league.
Blank has already decided she is going to play if she is drafted or picked up, no matter the circumstances.
“I would hate to not do it and then later say, ‘I could’ve done that,’” Blank said. “The education program is five years, so I would be stopping it towards the end, but I can always come back and with this league, who knows how long it’s going to last. I think that if I didn’t do it, I’d regret it.”
Blank already has first-hand knowledge about the league and the players in it from WVU assistant coach Lisa Stoia and former All-American defender Greer Barnes who both competed in the leagues first year of existence.
“Stoia has been talking to me about it a lot and telling me what I need to do to get to that next level and Greer has talked to me all about her experiences,” Blank explained. “It’s such a different level from the college game. They both did really well and it’s good to have them as resources.”
Because the education program is a five-year program, however, Blank would be forced to come back and complete the degree once she is done with league.
“The fifth year is mainly being at a school all day. You only have one or two classes and it’s just for professional development,” Blank stated. “I still need to sit down with the program coordinator and asked what I can do. I keep saying I’m going to cross that bridge when it comes, but it’s coming.
“No matter what I say, I know for a fact that I’m going to do it. As much as I say that I want to finish my degree right away and then go back to it, I’m not going to. It’s not what I’m made to do. I want to play soccer, that’s what I want to do and I’d regret it completely.”
Blank is going to make sure no matter what happens with her soccer career, that she comes back and finishes that degree that she started in September of 2006.
“I’m not going to spend the rest of my life playing soccer, I would love to, but it’s not going to happen; you need to have that degree to fall back on,” Blank said. “No matter what, I’m going to be able to get that, because that’s what I’m going to do with my life after soccer. I really want to play in the league, I made up my mind and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Now as a her career at WVU winds down and Blank has made her first professional career decision, she remembers one of the first days on campus.
“I remember coming in as a freshman and we were walking by the All-American wall one day and Nikki was like, ‘Oh you’re going to be on their someday,’ and I had no idea. I’m only as good as my team. Because of my team and the players around me, that’s why I’ve had success.”
