A series of interviews with Bridgewater athletes to gain perspective of what college life is like in someone else’s shoes.

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From April 19, 2020

Transcript

[00:00:00]

HUSKEY: Hello, everybody. This is Diamond Husky. I’m here with Alley Odell—coach Alley Odell—for an over-the-phone interview with things to do during quarantine. Alley Odell is an assistant coach for my women’s basketball team. She’s going on to her second year with the program. And during this quarantine she is located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. And she’s going to talk to us about her way of quarantine. What’s up, coach?

[00:00:22]

ODELL: Hey, how are you doing?

HUSKEY: Good. How are you?

ODELL: Doing all right.

HUSKEY: So, talk to us about how quarantine has affected you.

[00:00:31]

ODELL: So, as you know, you guys were here Wednesday—what, like the 12^th, I think it was, of March. And then y’all got sent home pretty quickly. So Harrisonburg didn’t really quite go into lockdown until about a week after and things got really crazy. And the Food Lion and the Wal-Mart were wiped out of toilet paper.

[00:00:56] So I am living in student housing with three other JMU kids who are all home. So I am currently hanging out by myself. [Laughter] And then I see coach kind of regularly just to kind of maintain some type of schedule. It has been boring, but it’s also forced me to focus on my schoolwork and self-care in a weird way. And you’ll learn when you are 22, to maybe 28, it’s really important, [Laughter] and quarantine is a perfect time to start a new hobby or to start something different. So I picked up a new hair and face routine, which has been kind of fun. And then just doing homework and basketball work like regular.

[00:01:47]

HUSKEY: Interesting, so you talking about schoolwork. So you’re saying you’re still a student right now. Like what are you pursuing in your career?

[00:01:53]

ODELL: So I will be done with my Masters in human services—marriage, family therapy in July. And then this fall, I will be obtaining my certificate in sports management. By October of this year I will have Coach Alley Odell, MA, so Masters after it, and then I’ll have a certificate in sports management, which is kind of like a minor for your masters, if that makes sense.

[00:02:20]

HUSKEY: Yes.

[00:02:23]

ODELL: So I’m currently, I had to do a week-long lecture setting for a hands-on counseling class, and then I am now enrolled in nine credits—I had to take on an extra class because of quarantine—I’m now enrolled in nine credits for one, a psycho-pathology, which is diagnosis of psychotic disorders and then family therapy. And then I’m also in family theory. So it’s, it’s a lot.

[00:02:56]

HUSKEY: Yeah. So your work—you’re used to working a lot and doing all this. I know some students is saying this online thing is just not it. But you’re saying you’re used to it. You’re used to working online.

ODELL: Yup. Well you guys know too. I would come in and I, I mean, I’d have some pretty extensive work to get done with my stuff. So I think something that’s been helpful is that you guys had to move to online classes, and I’ve been able to kind of, you know, help you guys out, in that sense, because it can be a little stressful if you’re not prepared for it.

If you don’t have good time strategies, then it’s not going to be—if you’re a procrastinator like I am—then you’re going to spend all day Sunday doing your work. [Laughter]

[00:03:35]

HUSKEY: Yes, yes. So talk to me a little about family. Have any Your family’s been affected during the quarantine or anything like that. Have they lost their job or due to the quarantine?

[00:03:47]

ODELL: Both of my parents are teachers, so obviously all the school systems in Virginia shut down. And so right now, they’re adapting, working from home. My mom is an elementary arts art teacher and my dad is a high school teacher. So he has a little bit more structure that he has to do; my mom is just kind of keeping up with her certification, helping out the best she can. My sister, she had to go home early. So she’s a junior in college. She—actually her softball season ended early—so she’s a junior, so she had to go back home. And then, as you know, I am here still clocking hours just when I can. So I guess unemployment hasn’t really hit my family as much as it’s hit more of my friends that are my age. I have two friends who are essential workers, who are both nurses in Richmond. That’s been stressful because Richmond’s had a really high caseload along with Northern Virginia. So it’s just like constantly making sure they’re OK. I talk to them every day. How are you doing? Because that can be stressful. And then two of my other good friends both filed for unemployment and one has a kid, so the stress is definitely there. But I you know, we’re all healthy right now, which is good.

[00:05:07]

HUSKEY: So I know a lot people were trying to like keep up their workout routines.

Since everything is, just the gym was closed and everything else is closed. Like do you have any certain workout routines that you do – since you are athletic? [Laughter]

[00:05:19]

ODELL: So, Coach and I have tried to, well, we haven’t done it this week because it’s been cold. But we were trying to walk every other day, at least a couple of miles, which we were doing heavily. But I’ve also had a lot of work to do, so I haven’t been able to be very active. I have tried actually moving around my entire apartment to open up space, to do home workouts. So eventually that happen. I just have to do it. [Laughter]

But I try to maintain the same schedule every day. I wake up around the same time I eat around the same time I start doing work around the same time. I try to keep everything very schedule oriented because if not, I will not ever get anything done. [Laughter]

[00:06:04]

HUSKEY: That’s crazy, seems like a tip that I need to do.

ODELL: Yes! All of you guy’s need to be on a schedule.

HUSKEY: So you talk about home. Where is home for you originally since you are transferring, though?

[00:06:15]

ODELL: Yeah. So home for me is Richmond, Virginia, specifically Short Pump area. I left home … let’s see … August of last year, and I don’t regularly go home. And actually, it’s been kind of unfortunate, I haven’t been able to actually go home during quarantine because I am isolating on my own and my family’s isolated as well. So and both my mom and I have been going out, obviously, for essential things, so I haven’t—she and I both decided was probably just smarter to stay away just in case someone picked up something. It could just be anything, but we just wanted to be extra safe. My parents are a little bit older, so we’re definitely sticking to the stay-at-home rule for sure.

[00:07:00]

HUSKEY: That’s great. That’s how I am. I’m glad you are picking up on this ODELL:. I know a lot of kids have been going out.

[00:07:04]

ODELL: Well it’s, it’s stressful, too, because in Richmond, especially where my family is, it’s heavily populated. And it’s I don’t want to say it’s like upper-middle class, but it kind of is. But a lot of people say that the rules don’t apply to them. So my mom has been very wary about where she goes because people just aren’t listening, which has been the hardest thing, because, you know, we all we all want to get back to our regular routine. But I would much rather go back to my regular routine healthy than having to worry that I’m going to catch a horrible, horrible virus.

[00:07:39]

HUSKEY: Yeah. Well, I appreciate you, coach, for me with me today.

ODELL: Yeah, no problem. It was nice talking to you.

[00:07:44]

HUSKEY: Thank you. Well, you guys, I am Diamond Huskey here with daily life of being quarantined. Thank you all.