Jody Wynn: A Letter to My Younger Self
2/3/2021
Washington women's basketball head coach Jody Wynn pens a letter to her younger self on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Dear 14-year-old Jody,
As I write to you today, I am excited to share some of the fantastic experiences you will go through in your young life.
Your swimming career was a big part of making you who you are today and the decision you made to focus on your new-found love of playing basketball will bring you an incredible future. You have learned so many life lessons along the way, met some friends that you will remain in touch with into adulthood, have some special coaches, and you are so lucky that your old swim coach has set the standard of what a strong, driven female coach looks like…because you will become one!
You are driven and dedicated...You are resilient and not afraid to take on the challenges set before you.
The dedication and sacrifice you put into swimming stay constant in your life with basketball, school, and your family. You may have days where you feel like quitting, that you hate your coach, but your drive to be your best help you through rough patches. Your work ethic earns you great accolades and tons of wins, and a full scholarship to compete at USC.
As you embark on your career as a basketball player and navigate “growing up,” here are a couple of things to remember along the way:
You are driven and dedicated. You set goals, you figure out how to get there and you do it. Sure, there are roadblocks along the way, and injuries that you think you may never overcome, but you are resilient and not afraid to take on the challenges set before you.
In high school, you voluntarily start basketball training before and after school every day, just like swim practices. That means you still wake your mom up every morning to drive you to training. From this, you learn to take ownership in your actions and your outcomes and that ends up being a valuable skill for you later in life. This experience also teaches you how to be selfless as a mom.
You learn how meaningful a life is of giving back to the game that gave you so much.
Your high school and club teams give you terrific experiences and lead to you becoming a student-athlete at USC. You develop a love-hate relationship with your high school coach, and through all the running and tough practices, you develop a special bond that turns into a lasting friendship. You will become a champion over and over, and learn to appreciate your tough coaches, teammates, and community. It is in high school that you learn the value of giving back. You spend time volunteering within the community and enjoy making an impact off the basketball court, too.
Your collegiate career is not ideal, and you filter through three different coaching staffs in your four years. Halfway through, you pack up your bedroom and want to leave…but your best friend talks you out of it…and good thing, because you eventually meet the love of your life! You battle through many ankle sprains and an eventual surgery that ends your playing career a week after your senior season. You learn how to make tough decisions, how to have tough conversations with your coaches and parents, and how to deal with the consequences because of it.
You meet so many great people and build an amazing support system that will never leave you. You are a part of a basketball team of amazing women at USC — many of whom are still in your life today. Here you also meet the love of your life and are happily married to him today.
You eventually discover a sense of self and learn who you are as a woman, role model, and mentor to the female student-athletes you get to coach.
Throughout your athletic career, you are rewarded, directed, instructed, pushed, challenged, “talked-up,” pressured, tired, happy, scheduled, stressed, too busy and always striving to be better than the day before. You are never content, and you always want to be the best at everything. And you want to be everything to everyone. You are stuck in these ways for quite a while after your basketball career too. Don’t worry, you survive it. You also eventually learn to slow down and practice patience. It’s a tough skill for you, but you keep working on it.
You find it relatively difficult to balance school, basketball and your personal life while in college but you manage it and are successful in the end. You hate asking for help but learn to utilize the many resources that are available for the student-athletes. You spend the final months of your senior year of college crutching around campus from ankle surgery, realizing that playing professionally is no longer in your immediate path. You hang up your high-tops and begin your journey into coaching. You follow your mentor’s advice of “those that can’t do, teach”. You pour your heart into the student-athletes that you coach and try to make their experience fantastic. You learn how meaningful a life is of giving back to the game that gave you so much.
As you wrap up your athletic career, you find yourself being grateful for the support of your coaches and your experiences. You eventually discover a sense of self and learn who you are as a woman, role model, and mentor to the female student-athletes you get to coach. Your experiences in working with impressionable young women help prepare you for motherhood.
Be kind to yourself, and realize tough times make you stronger.
You learn through some ups and downs during college that everything is your choice—regardless of the consequences. Be kind to yourself, and realize tough times make you stronger. Be strong. Be confident. And learn to thrive and find comfort in the unknown. You are so blessed in so many ways. And you are able to see this and are grateful for it almost every day.
All the love to you,
