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Carrera Lucas joined the Villanova Field Hockey coaching staff in 2019 as a specialized goalkeeper coach. She previously attended the University of Virginia and played there before joining the United States Developmental Team for Field Hockey. Carrera answers some questions about what it's like to be both a coach of a University while also being an enrolled student at that school. 

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What prompted you to accept a coaching position at Villanova?

I kind of stumbled into coaching. To be honest, I was trying to continue my playing career at the professional level. I needed a job in the meantime until I actually achieved that. Coaching seemed like a good way to increase my field hockey knowledge in a different way. It helped me grow as a player indirectly and gave me access to training facilities. On top of that, it was just something I had been interested in. 

The girls on the team were a huge draw. The facilities at Villanova as well, and something that I'll tell recruits a lot: It has all the best parts of a smaller school, but then it has that big-time athletic department feel with having such successful teams. I think before I got to know Villanova, there's a few things I could add to that list now, but before accepting the job those were definitely the main things. 

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What program are you currently enrolled in at Villanova?

I am working on my MBA in the school of business. I am doing the flex track so I can go at my own pace. Within that program, I am doing a concentration in strategic management and analytics. 

Is it challenging to balance the two?

To be honest it feels just like being a student-athlete. It's very familiar. I don't find myself thinking often about what life would be like if I wasn't in this program as well as coaching. For all of my years in college, I only spent one of those years, my first year at Villanova, not also studying at the same time. It's just kind of second nature. It's also cool that I'll be on campus for work and then I can just stay for my classes. 

How does it differ going from being the athlete to the coach?

I was terrified at first, but it went a lot better than I thought. The scariest part of it was just knowing I was so close in age to the girls on the team. I was thinking “Are they actually going to listen to me and think I have something to offer them? Or am I going to be too close to being a peer?” That was definitely the scariest part which I was pleasantly surprised to find wasn't the case. I've always told people that I think the team at Vilanova has this really good attitude, that you have something to learn from everybody. Whether that be another student, a young coach, or a more experienced coach. 

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You're only a few years older than the seniors on your team. Did you find it hard to establish yourself as an authority figure? Why or why not?

I didn't really. I feel like I'm the type of person that everyone gets the same version of me. It's not like I change who I am in different contexts. What you see is what you get, so I didn't feel like I had to put on a mask and behave any differently. 

It's also a little different being such a specialized role with goalkeepers. There were other challenges where a field player might ask me something about a shot, and I couldn't really teach them much because that was never part of my game as a goalkeeper. I think that actually helped me because my scope was a bit smaller to where I could be an expert in goalkeeping, and now I'm working on building the skills to be able to coach everybody a little bit more. 

What are you hoping to do after you finish your schooling?

I want to stay in college sports for sure. Maybe I would transition into the more administrative side of college sports. To be honest I don't really have a crazy solid plan of what I'm going to do with the MBA. It's something I was interested in. I am very happy in coaching for now, though, so I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

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Is there anything you would like to say to athletes looking to get into coaching?

You can try to boil down the things you really want in a job to traits that could apply very broadly. I arrived at the conclusion that I know that someone like a researcher who is very independent and doesn't have a lot of interaction with a team was not super appealing to me after being a team sport athlete for so long. I knew there were those positions that were very isolated and heavily rely on technical skills. I know I enjoy soft skills. I enjoy helping people get through a process and achieve new things. That could apply to any number of different jobs, but if those are things you are looking for in a job and you have a crazy amount of experience and knowledge specific to a sport, being a coach brings those two together. It gives you a chance to turn the things you've been working at for years into a career. If you also have that interest in the transformation industry and helping people achieve their goals, grow, and reach new heights then I think coaching is a really good place to land. 

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* Originally published on October 31, 2022, by Claire Borman