ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 As she walked around New Heights Elementary School on Nov. 20, Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson stopped to talk with students and teachers. Sensing her warmth, the children \u2014 even the grandmother volunteers \u2014 ran up and hugged her spontaneously.<\/p>\n
As he watched the 2028 U.S. Women’s Olympic Team coach interact with the New Heights community, Principal Chris Boulanger described it as “surreal, absolutely surreal.”<\/p>\n
“She’s just a human, so connected and accessible,” said Boulanger, who hosted Lawson for the morning visit. “Kids are the greatest benchmark, and you can tell how they gravitate, feel welcome and feel connected with her. She’s as real as it comes.”<\/p>\n
How did Lawson choose New Heights? Not by accident.<\/p>\n
When Lawson started using the mantra “Handle Hard Better” about three years ago, Boulanger picked up on it and made it the school’s slogan. Soon, students wrote the words “Handle Hard Better” on their tests before taking them.<\/p>\n
In a few years, New Heights has gone from a D-rated school to an A-rated school.<\/p>\n
Urged by a friend’s message \u2014 “When you’re moved to speak, speak” \u2014 Boulanger emailed Duke’s staff, letting them know what an impact Lawson’s words had on his students.<\/p>\n
What followed were posters Lawson sent that included the words:<\/p>\n
It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better. Make yourself a person that handles hard well. Not someone that’s waiting for the easy.<\/p>\n
Lawson also sent a postcard:<\/p>\n
I would like to write New Heights Elementary School to congratulate you on a tremendous school year. Your passion for improvement is inspiring. It is amazing to hear how the ‘Handle Hard Better’ message has impacted the students. I hope you continue to reach for your goals. I look forward to meeting you in person and visiting your school one day! Go Duke, Kara.<\/p>\n
Both the poster and postcard are framed and displayed prominently at New Heights.<\/p>\n
In return, the students gave her notes and letters about what the words have meant to them. One student started playing basketball. “It is hard,” he said.<\/p>\n
As she talked about communicating and connecting with people \u2014 whether her players or people she meets \u2014 Lawson’s eyes welled up.<\/p>\n
“I’m emotional, I cry all the time,” she admitted. “The title of coach doesn’t give you the best out of someone. Just because you’re the coach doesn’t mean they have to listen. That’s why you have to get to know them, know how they feel, and you have to be connected in a world that’s designed to be distracting.”<\/p>\n
Since being named U.S. Women’s Basketball coach two months ago, Lawson personally has learned to “Handle Hard Better.”<\/p>\n
She has a wealth of basketball knowledge that comes from 27 years of Olympic basketball experiences, television work as an analyst, assistant coach with the Boston Celtics and head coach at Duke.<\/p>\n
However, critics have said she hasn’t coached in the WNBA and hasn’t won a national championship.<\/p>\n
“We’re all products of our experiences,” she said. “I’m really proud of all the experiences I’ve had, what I’ve earned and what I’ve done with those opportunities earned. Get the opportunity, earn it, bust your butt and do the best job you can.<\/p>\n
“I played 13 years in the WNBA, and that experience shaped me in a lot of ways. I’m fluent in their language and what it means to coach those players.”<\/p>\n
This season has gotten off to a difficult start for the Blue Devils. They’re 3-3 after losing to South Florida 85-72 on Nov. 20. In an earlier loss to West Virginia, a mini-brawl at the end of the first half resulted in seven ejections, including six Mountaineers and four Duke starters.<\/p>\n
That may add a little more pressure on Lawson.<\/p>\n
“This is a good message for young people, although it’s harder for older people,” she said. “You can’t worry about what people say. The most important thing is what you do and how hard you work. There’s always detractors and naysayers, and that’s a great lesson for even third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. There will be those who think you can’t do something. What they think doesn’t impact your trajectory. Those are just someone’s opinions. The more you understand that concept, the less you’ll be distracted by opinions and the more you’ll be focused on the job you have to do. When you give all your energy and attention to what you want to achieve, you’ll have better results.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 As she walked around New Heights Elementary School on Nov. 20, Duke women’s basketball coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[42912,3108,42911,596,110,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-75865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-2028-olympics","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-new-heights-elementary-school","11":"tag-pinellas-county","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-st-pete","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}