Technical Timeouts: Caitlin Genovy - An Athletes Journey to Professional Coaching
Caitlin Genovy is a setter in her first year playing professionally in France for Volleyball La Rochette in the French Nationale 2 Division. Genovy played 5 years for the McMaster Marauders - winning two OUA Championships including in 2016 as the starting setter.
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My dream career path has changed as many times as Instagram’s app gets “upgraded”. I went from wanting to be a teacher in Kindergarten, a doctor in grade 6, an architect in grade 8 and a physiotherapist throughout most of high school. Even though my love of sport and science made kinesiology an easy choice for an undergraduate degree, the change in desired career path changed with every semester for 4 years, until eventually, I had no clue what I was going to do once I graduated. I knew that I loved the sport I played and envisioned it being a major part of my life for a very long time, but would I continue to play or would I coach? Would I go on to become an athletic trainer and find myself on a volleyball bench somewhere in the world? With a lot of help from some really awesome people, we found a common theme in my summers: coaching. In grade 12, I started to get involved with McMaster Volleyball Camps and was moved from “Coach in Training” to Assistant Coach at Madawaska Camps and for some still to be discovered reason, I was hooked. For the next 4 years, I worked 5 weeks of back to back camps before diving head first back into volleyball and books. Despite being mentally and physically exhausted each year, something about the month of August stood out. What was it about these crazy 35 days that had me hooked every summer? What was it about Mad Camp that made it the best week of my life? Was it just the amazing friends I’ve made over the last 6 years of coaching or was it the opportunity to inspire and teach the sport I love so much?