When I broke my leg playing soccer, Missy Foote, my lacrosse coach, was coaching field hockey on an adjacent field. I guess she heard about the injury, because right after her game was over, she came straight to the hospital.

During my rehab, she was with me every step of the way, even if that meant doing a pool workout with me before conducting lacrosse practice for the team.

The degree to which she knows each of her players as a person is remarkable. And not just her current players but anybody who has ever played for her. Also, the team dynamics she created have led all of us to stay in touch—and if we do get out of touch with someone, all we have to do is call Missy because she knows where everyone is and what everyone is doing!

There is a biking trail in San Francisco that goes up a really steep hill, which reminds me of Chipman Hill in Middlebury. Whenever I'm training on my bike and my legs are really burning, I think about the training runs the lacrosse team made up Chipman Hill and how Missy was right there with us. So when I'm on my bike, I'm thinking, "I can't let Missy beat me."

Missy Foote has had such a tremendous impact on me … it's almost too hard to put into words.