Minnesota Coach A Semifinalist For Junior NBA Coach Of The Year
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minnesota youth basketball coach is one of eight national semifinalists to be the Junior NBA Coach of the Year.
Her team knows she's deserving -- and you can help her win it.
It's a Saturday morning, which means -- like clockwork -- Carrie Berran is at a youth sporting event. On this day it's track and field -- her daughter's meet -- and one of those rare occasions when she actually isn't coaching.
"Today, I'm mom," she said. "Which, usually I'm coaching, but today I just get to be a mom."
Carrie is one of those people who pours herself into coaching.
"I coach softball, and basketball, and volleyball. I've coached baseball before," she said. "I think I'm drawn to coaching because I was lucky to have good coaches growing up."
It's something Carrie says has shaped her life.
"You learn a lot of great lessons from sports," she said. "I love coaching my kids, and their friends too, and showing them that moms can coach too -- that's kind of important to me. That it doesn't always have to be a dad, it can be a mom too."
That leads us to what's going on in Carrie's life right now.
"I honestly, I didn't even know I'd won the award until the Timberwolves called me," she said. "That was quite an exciting surprise."
You know you're doing something right when somebody thinks enough of your coaching to go out of their way to nominate you for an award for it.
"A family in our community -- a basketball family -- nominated me," Carrie said. "To have someone that notices how much work you put into it, and how much you care, to write the nomination, that's pretty awesome. When I found out from the Timberwolves, I started crying, and I was shaking, because it was quite an honor."
The Wolves picked Carrie as their nominee for the Junior NBA Coach of the Year award. Each team nominates a local basketball coach from their market --- and then, Carrie made the cut as one of the eight semifinalists.
From now until May 22, voting is open on Twitter. Each tweet and retweet of the hashtag #JRNBACOYMIN counts as a vote for Carrie.
"I really care about kids in sports, especially girls in sports," she said. "I think that's important for girls to see women in those positions. And that they can do it. And that they can do it well. And be successful. And, I'm the only female nominee. ... I would like to represent all the moms and all the women that work hard to coach. And are great at it, and I would like to represent them, for this award."