{"id":8170,"date":"2015-10-21T04:30:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T09:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=8170"},"modified":"2015-10-20T09:28:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T14:28:20","slug":"former-college-coach-finds-nsr-career-change-fulfilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/former-college-coach-finds-nsr-career-change-fulfilling\/","title":{"rendered":"Former college coach finds NSR career change fulfilling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A sports nut from early on, Sara Rondeau was destined to be a college coach and NSR scout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you choose college coaching as a career, count on having a\u00a0moving van on call.\u00a0 Such was the case for Sara Rondeau.<\/p>\n

It’s a hard life to be uprooted so often in search of the ideal job.\u00a0 Thankfully, Rondeau found that last year in Indiana. But the job she’d always dreamed of wasn’t in coaching after all, but fulfilled her passion for helping high school athletes realize their own dreams of being college athletes.<\/p>\n

Rondeau is a scout for National Scouting Report.<\/p>\n

A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Rondeau participated in nearly every sport growing up.\u00a0 Swimming?\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 Golf?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 Softball?\u00a0 You bet.\u00a0 Tennis?\u00a0 Uh-huh.\u00a0 Soccer?\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 And basketball?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 How about water polo?\u00a0 Yes to that, too.\u00a0 Not many young athletes can count that high much less name all those sports.<\/p>\n

“I was always a multiple-sports athlete growing up,” she said. “In high school, I played soccer my freshman and sophomore years and basketball all\u00a0four years.\u00a0 And, actually, after my senior year of basketball, I ended up\u00a0playing water polo.”<\/p>\n

After high school, Rondeau accepted a basketball scholarship at Howard Junior College in Big Spring, Texas, where she started for two years and set a school record with six 3-pointers in a single game.\u00a0 Then it was off to Hannibal-LaGrange University, an NAIA school in Hannibal, Mo.\u00a0 Rondeau was the team’s leading scorer and captain as a senior.<\/p>\n

“At HLGU I actually was a two-sport athlete participating in both basketball and golf,” she said. ” Scholarships in both sports, along with an academic scholarship, helped to pay\u00a0most of my college expenses.”<\/p>\n

Handling the demands and pressures of being a dual-sport college athlete wasn’t easy. However, her experiences allow her to give NSR athletes\u00a0 a heads-up about organizing their time.<\/p>\n

\"Being<\/a>
Being a former college athlete helps Rondeau guide NSR prospects through the recruiting process.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Balancing sports and academics was hard at times when\u00a0I would come home late from a game at 3 a.m. and then get up the next morning for class at 7:30,” said Rondeau, who graduated with a degree in Communications. “I managed to do homework before road trips and stay ahead or do homework on the bus.\u00a0 One thing that I think helped me was talking with my professors each semester\u00a0to let them know I was an athlete and giving them my schedule of when I would be missing classes. Communicating with my professors was always big, so together we could work out anything that I missed such as notes for class, labs, presentations, or tests.\u00a0 We also had study tables and tutors for basketball, and I took advantage of those in order to keep my grades up.”<\/p>\n

The demands of college coaching were no easier. Rondeau made four moves in five years following her passion and advancing her career.<\/p>\n

Rondeau took the advice of her basketball coach to became a\u00a0graduate assistant after college.\u00a0\u00a0That allowed her to earn a\u00a0Masters degree\u00a0in Business Leadership while joining the women’s basketball coaching staff at\u00a0William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa.\u00a0 She coached there for two years.<\/p>\n

After WPU, Rondeau became an assistant women’s basketball and assistant golf coach at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill.\u00a0 She also held those positions for two years.\u00a0 The basketball team advanced to the NAIA national tournament both years.<\/p>\n

Next,\u00a0she hit the road to\u00a0become an assistant basketball coach for one year at Point University in West Point, Ga.<\/p>\n

Finally, she was named assistant women’s basketball coach at Indiana University-East in Richmond, Ind., where she still resides.\u00a0 When Rondeau took the job, head\u00a0coach Tiffani Selhorst said: “The lifeblood to any successful team is recruiting and being able to connect with the student-athletes, and Sara has a wealth of experience in both.”<\/p>\n

One year later, Rondeau joined NSR as a scout.<\/p>\n

“I made the transition to become an NSR scout because I did get a little burned out of college athletics along with the uncertainty of the job security every year as well,” Rondeau said. “When I was a college coach, I was the main recruiter for most of the colleges I worked.\u00a0 I loved recruiting and having the opportunity to go to high school games or basketball tournaments in the summer finding athletes and building those relationships with the athlete and family.”<\/p>\n

\"Rondeau<\/a>
Rondeau (left) scouts a softball tournament with NSR’s Jim Crotty and Sheila Thiery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sheila Thiery, NSR area\u00a0director in\u00a0Southwest Ohio, frequently scouts with Rondeau. “We try and team scout quite a bit.\u00a0 Being we are both female, we can work hard, be serious, but also cut up in a girl sort of way that is goofy!\u00a0 I consider her someone that I can talk to and laugh with.\u00a0 There are not many scouts over here where I live, so it\u2019s nice to have someone to team scout with that I can really trust and relate to. We help each other quite a bit.”<\/p>\n

Rondeau said her NSR job fulfills her professionally and personally.<\/p>\n

“What I like most about being an NSR scout is opening up different opportunities that these athletes never knew existed,” Rondeau said. “I enjoy guiding the athlete and their family through the process and being able to answer any questions they may have along the way. \u00a0I also like being able to watch different sports and events like softball, soccer, basketball, cross country, and track and field. \u00a0When I see an athlete that I believe can play at the next level, I enjoy talking to them and their family to start building that relationship. \u00a0I am someone who likes to build relationships and help others. That is my personality and what I try to get across to the athlete and their family.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you choose college coaching as a career, count on having a\u00a0moving van on call.\u00a0 Such was the case for Sara Rondeau. It’s a hard life to be uprooted so often in search of the ideal job.\u00a0 Thankfully, Rondeau found that last year in Indiana. But the job she’d always dreamed of wasn’t in coaching … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[31,284,56,288,289,222,286,287,283,239,285],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8170"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8220,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8170\/revisions\/8220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}