Speaker 1: Hi, how are you? Hi, I'm good. Nice to meet you. Well, my name is Kamri Browder and I'm the athletic director for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I will be interviewing you over Skype for the position of the grad assistant for our women's basketball team. Would you like to tell me a little about yourself?

Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Adrienne Prejean. I'm from Lafayette, Louisiana. I recently graduated with a bachelor's in health promotion and wellness. I played four years of Division One college basketball. I am a hard worker, a quick learner. I ask a lot of questions and that's just how I tend to learn. I'm a hands-on person. I'm fun to be around. I bring

Speaker 1: a lot of positive energy. Okay, so what made you choose this program of all programs?

Speaker 2: Well, once I graduated, I wanted to return home for a little while. Like I said before, I'm from Lafayette, Louisiana. So, when I saw that there was a position for the graduate assistant open, I was like, well, it would be a good opportunity to get my foot in the door for being a head coach. So, to move back home and be closer to my family and be into

Speaker 1: the coaching world. So, if you were to get the position of graduate assistant, what would

Speaker 2: be your future plans? My future plans for the program or for myself? Well, for the program, I would try to bring as much of a positive impact as possible. You know, being young and understanding where the girls are coming from, trying to, you know, communicate from the girls to the coach. And for myself, hopefully this will get me into the college, the collegiate coaching world and kind of get my name out there. And hopefully, you know, I do well enough with y'all and, you know, you, your coach and the staff will write me letters of recommendations and I can learn whatever y'all are willing to teach and I can take

Speaker 1: it far. So, I know you said that you were a player for four years, but alongside being a player, do you think you'd understand the commitment that's involved with becoming a

Speaker 2: graduate assistant? Yeah, I'm pretty sure, you know, we, my team had a graduate assistant and I kind of saw what she did behind the scenes and how things worked. I mean, I didn't see all of it because as a player, you know, a lot of things go on, you're not really aware of what's happening, but I'm willing to take on any challenges that come my way. Okay.

Speaker 1: What specific qualities do you possess that would be perfect for this position? I understand

Speaker 2: the game of basketball for one. I understand how a division one program is ran correctly and how it can easily be ran the wrong way. And so, I know, you know, what could be successful for the program and what could possibly harm the program, like what are things that might harm it? So, I think just my understanding and knowledge of a division one program and my positive attitude and hard working qualifies me for the job. In your opinion, what is a grad assistant? A grad assistant is in charge of managing the managers, if that makes sense to you, you know, like the things, getting everything in order, like making sure the girls are on the court on time, making sure that the uniforms are in order, everything's packed for away trips, making sure that the managers are doing their job, you know, providing water for the girls, meeting with the managers and, you know, expressing to them what they're supposed to be doing, learning from the coaches, doing basically the jobs the coaches don't want to do, kind of like the scrap jobs, like the real hard jobs. Okay, so, what necessarily inspired you to get into coaching? What inspired me to get into coaching was being coached by others, you know, the coaches I've had in my life have impacted me in a very, um, a very, I don't know what's a good word for it, but they've impacted me in the right way and they've steered my life in the right direction and I feel that if I can do the same for young girls, you know, then I'm making a difference in the world and, I mean, what are you doing if you're

Speaker 1: not making a difference? Right, so you understand what it's like to be a player, you seem to, you seem to hope to understand what it's like to be a coach. Do you understand how you'd be

Speaker 2: getting paid as a grad assistant? Uh, yes, ma'am. I read on the website, you know, the job descriptions and what comes with being a grad graduate assistant. I would be having, uh, my graduate class is paid for and my on-campus or away-from-campus housing and that's it. Yes, so, um,

Speaker 1: with understanding all of these aspects, what would you say would be your biggest strengths

Speaker 2: and weaknesses? My biggest strength is I'm not afraid to, you know, put myself out there. Like, I'm not afraid to go the extra mile or do the extra thing and my biggest weakness would be, you know, kind of having to fall back and take a back seat because, you know, sometimes as a player you can communicate with the coach like, hey, you know, I think this will work better but as a graduate assistant you're not really in that position to really voice your opinion about the wrongdoings of the coach or not really wrongdoings are the things that you feel

Speaker 1: might be better for the program. So, how could you work on incorporating your strengths and minimizing as well as minimizing your weakness? Um, I think that to minimize my weakness I just

Speaker 2: have to, you know, meet with coach individually and, you know, just ask questions like why or why do you prefer to do a certain thing this way or why do you prefer to do it that way and I think for my strengths I feel like just being myself at all times. Okay, so, um, I know that you have a

Speaker 1: connection with the girls on our team. Um, do you think that would be a problem with you becoming a graduate assistant and how would you, how would you separate yourself from the player aspect to

Speaker 2: now becoming sort of an authority figure? Well, I actually did go to high school with some of the girls from the team, some of the older girls, you know, I'm a couple of years older than some of the older ones but I feel like, you know, I just have to keep it professional like understand that I'm not a player anymore that I'm now a coach and that they have to respect me and I have to respect them as players and just, you know, understanding that boundary between player and coach and I think

Speaker 1: I can manage that well. So, if you were to receive the position of becoming a graduate assistant

Speaker 2: where do you see yourself in five years? Um, with my master's degree hopefully, you know, if this works out and, um, in five years being either the assistant coach or head associate coach of a division one program or maybe a division two but preferably a division one basketball team or even working here at UL, I mean, I would love to work here as one of the coaches.

Speaker 1: Okay, well, I think that's about it. Thank you. Okay, thanks.