May 3, 2024 • 9 mins
For our “Shop Talk” series, Coach Bill tells the inspirational story of Paralympic gold medalist Katie Holloway. And what we can all learn from her.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody's Bill Courtney's Shop Talk number eight. I cannot
believe or on shop Talk number eight. Alex is going
to get pretty upset with me when I run out
of ideas for shop Talk. But maybe we'll start talking
politics soon. Y'all love that, won't you? Shop Talk number eight.
We're going to talk about this. In every single race
(00:25):
that I've ever seen, whether it's a fifty yard sprint
or marathon, there's a tape at the end. There's a
finish line. In every single race, there's a finish line,
except one, the race on life, because in life there
is no finish line, because perseverance never takes a break.
(00:47):
We'll talk about that right after these brief messages from
our general sponsors. Oh, a few years ago, I was
in Colorado Springs at the United States Olympic Committee thing,
(01:09):
and I was speaking to the Olympic swim a bunch
of Olympic places, and I was invited to address the
United States para Olympic team before they went off to
I think it was uk to compete for the United
States in the Paralympics, And I'm going to tell you something.
(01:30):
You talk about inspiring amazing people competing for our country
in the Olympics and the Paralympics. While I was walking
around campus, i'd actually just left the swim pool area,
which was incredible because Michael Phelps was in there and
that dude is long. And was walking with a person
(01:54):
that was on the Olympic committee, not an athlete, but
an administrator. And as we passed by, I see this
really tall, dark headed girl, she's probably six ' three
sitting on a bench, and the administrator introduced me and
her name was Katie I later found out Katie Holloway.
And we started talking. And as we're talking, I'm just
(02:17):
sitting on the bench and the administrator ran off and
I had a few minutes before I had to go
in and do my nextra dress. And as we're talking,
Katie removes her leg. I swear to you, just removes
her leg and I'm like, WHOA, what's that. And she's like, oh,
I'm on the Paralympic volleyball team. And I'm like, that's crazy.
(02:41):
Have you always played volleyball? And she said no, I've
always played basketball. And I said you've always played basketball
and she said yeah, And I said I'd love to
hear about that. And she said, well, I'm going into
listening to speech. If you want to meet, i'll tell
you about it. I said great. So I did my
speech and there she was after words, and we sat
down at a table and she grabbed an orange juice
(03:04):
and I grabbed a dot coke and I found out
Katie's story. She was born with both legs, and shortly
after when she was young, she had to have one
of her legs removed below the knee. But she was
really athletic and her mom she wanted to play basketball
(03:30):
with a prosthetic, believe it or not, and her mom
took her to little league and everybody said no, no, no,
no no, But she kept practicing and she kept practicing,
and finally, like junior high, she made the junior high
basketball team wearing a prosthetic leg, and all this was
(03:52):
fifteen years ago. Then she made her high school basketball
team with a prosthetic leg. Then she started for her
high school basketball team and was dominating folks with one leg,
(04:12):
and thought of playing in college actually came around, and
that's really what she wanted to do. That was her dream.
And obviously coaches would come watch her play because they
heard her name and they saw her numbers, and the
athletic director and her high school coach were sending out
and they would come watch her play and they would
(04:33):
be impressed until they recognized she was run around on
one leg and they would immediately back off. So Katie
came up with an idea. She started wearing a knee
brace on the one leg that had a prosthetic. Now,
just so that you know, you don't need a knee
brace when you don't have the bottom half of your leg,
but she wore it to cover prosthetic and she got
(04:58):
a scholarship to Northridge. While at cal Straight Northridge, she
played her entire time when she was there and ended
up I actually think she ended up winning the conference
sixth Man of the Year award and I think led
her team in rebounds with one leg. All from a
(05:20):
kid who was told she'd never play sports. After that,
she was recruited by the Paralympics, and the Paralympics don't
have basketball, they have wheelchair basketball, and she didn't want
to do that, so she went to play volleyball, and
(05:41):
her first year on the Paralympics volleyball team, she won
a gold medal for the United States guys. When we
talk about perseverance, and we talk about sticking to it.
We talk about never quitting. Whenever I hear that, I
think at Katie Holloway. I think of a little girl
(06:05):
who loses her leg and gets told she can never
play sports and ends up becoming an all star in
high school. Hides her prosthetic because she knows what people
are going to think when they see it. She's not
embarrassed about it. She's just keeping people from knowing it
so they'll at least give it a fair shot when
(06:25):
they check her out. Ends up going to play college basketball,
becomes a sixth Woman of the Year for the conference,
and then wins a gold medal for the United States
in Paralympic volleyball. Katie Holloway is a phenomenal human being,
and she is now working in the Pacific Northwest doing
(06:48):
good work for people who need it. You see, here's
the deal. Perseverance is understanding that you just don't take
a break, you don't stop. In the marathon of life.
There is no finish line. If Katie Holloway had ever
(07:10):
seen a finish line, she would have quit playing sports
at middle school because she was told she couldn't. If
there was a finish line, she would have quit playing
basketball in high school because she was told there's no
one going to be in the right mind going to
give a scholarship to girl with one leg. I played basketball,
And if she'd have quit there, she wouldn't have represented
(07:31):
our country in the Paralympics and have a gold medal
to her name. But see, she never saw a finish line.
She never saw a tape. She didn't say a place
to stop. How's things going in your marriage? Is there
a finish line? How things going with your kids? Are
(07:54):
you persevering? How's things going at work as you listen
to an art normal folks? How are things going in
your quest to fill the void in your part of
the community that desperately needs it? Y'all, Perseverance never takes
a break. There is no finish line. There's always going
(08:18):
to be need, There are always going to be those
that aren't as fortunate as you, and there's always going
to be an army in normal folks. Their numbers and
their effectiveness completely depend on you deciding. Perseverance never takes
a break, and there is no finish line. I hope
(08:41):
you'll think about that next time you listen to army
and normal folks, and as you listen more think about
how you can persevere and how there's no finish line
in the work we're trying to do and the work
that you can do in your community to help somebody
around you. That's shop talk, And before we go, I
want to let you know if there are any topics
(09:04):
you'd like to hear a shop talk on societal, political, racial,
faith or cultural. We'd love to hear about them. You
can email me anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot us.
Drop me a line on some topics you think might
(09:25):
be appropriate for shop talk, and if I feel like
I have anything to offer them, well, I'll open my
big mouth and share them with you. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'll see you next week.
Hey, everybody's Bill Courtney's Shop Talk number eight. I cannot
believe or on shop Talk number eight. Alex is going
to get pretty upset with me when I run out
of ideas for shop Talk. But maybe we'll start talking
politics soon. Y'all love that, won't you? Shop Talk number eight.
We're going to talk about this. In every single race
(00:25):
that I've ever seen, whether it's a fifty yard sprint
or marathon, there's a tape at the end. There's a
finish line. In every single race, there's a finish line,
except one, the race on life, because in life there
is no finish line, because perseverance never takes a break.
(00:47):
We'll talk about that right after these brief messages from
our general sponsors. Oh, a few years ago, I was
in Colorado Springs at the United States Olympic Committee thing,
(01:09):
and I was speaking to the Olympic swim a bunch
of Olympic places, and I was invited to address the
United States para Olympic team before they went off to
I think it was uk to compete for the United
States in the Paralympics, And I'm going to tell you something.
(01:30):
You talk about inspiring amazing people competing for our country
in the Olympics and the Paralympics. While I was walking
around campus, i'd actually just left the swim pool area,
which was incredible because Michael Phelps was in there and
that dude is long. And was walking with a person
(01:54):
that was on the Olympic committee, not an athlete, but
an administrator. And as we passed by, I see this
really tall, dark headed girl, she's probably six ' three
sitting on a bench, and the administrator introduced me and
her name was Katie I later found out Katie Holloway.
And we started talking. And as we're talking, I'm just
(02:17):
sitting on the bench and the administrator ran off and
I had a few minutes before I had to go
in and do my nextra dress. And as we're talking,
Katie removes her leg. I swear to you, just removes
her leg and I'm like, WHOA, what's that. And she's like, oh,
I'm on the Paralympic volleyball team. And I'm like, that's crazy.
(02:41):
Have you always played volleyball? And she said no, I've
always played basketball. And I said you've always played basketball
and she said yeah, And I said I'd love to
hear about that. And she said, well, I'm going into
listening to speech. If you want to meet, i'll tell
you about it. I said great. So I did my
speech and there she was after words, and we sat
down at a table and she grabbed an orange juice
(03:04):
and I grabbed a dot coke and I found out
Katie's story. She was born with both legs, and shortly
after when she was young, she had to have one
of her legs removed below the knee. But she was
really athletic and her mom she wanted to play basketball
(03:30):
with a prosthetic, believe it or not, and her mom
took her to little league and everybody said no, no, no,
no no, But she kept practicing and she kept practicing,
and finally, like junior high, she made the junior high
basketball team wearing a prosthetic leg, and all this was
(03:52):
fifteen years ago. Then she made her high school basketball
team with a prosthetic leg. Then she started for her
high school basketball team and was dominating folks with one leg,
(04:12):
and thought of playing in college actually came around, and
that's really what she wanted to do. That was her dream.
And obviously coaches would come watch her play because they
heard her name and they saw her numbers, and the
athletic director and her high school coach were sending out
and they would come watch her play and they would
(04:33):
be impressed until they recognized she was run around on
one leg and they would immediately back off. So Katie
came up with an idea. She started wearing a knee
brace on the one leg that had a prosthetic. Now,
just so that you know, you don't need a knee
brace when you don't have the bottom half of your leg,
but she wore it to cover prosthetic and she got
(04:58):
a scholarship to Northridge. While at cal Straight Northridge, she
played her entire time when she was there and ended
up I actually think she ended up winning the conference
sixth Man of the Year award and I think led
her team in rebounds with one leg. All from a
(05:20):
kid who was told she'd never play sports. After that,
she was recruited by the Paralympics, and the Paralympics don't
have basketball, they have wheelchair basketball, and she didn't want
to do that, so she went to play volleyball, and
(05:41):
her first year on the Paralympics volleyball team, she won
a gold medal for the United States guys. When we
talk about perseverance, and we talk about sticking to it.
We talk about never quitting. Whenever I hear that, I
think at Katie Holloway. I think of a little girl
(06:05):
who loses her leg and gets told she can never
play sports and ends up becoming an all star in
high school. Hides her prosthetic because she knows what people
are going to think when they see it. She's not
embarrassed about it. She's just keeping people from knowing it
so they'll at least give it a fair shot when
(06:25):
they check her out. Ends up going to play college basketball,
becomes a sixth Woman of the Year for the conference,
and then wins a gold medal for the United States
in Paralympic volleyball. Katie Holloway is a phenomenal human being,
and she is now working in the Pacific Northwest doing
(06:48):
good work for people who need it. You see, here's
the deal. Perseverance is understanding that you just don't take
a break, you don't stop. In the marathon of life.
There is no finish line. If Katie Holloway had ever
(07:10):
seen a finish line, she would have quit playing sports
at middle school because she was told she couldn't. If
there was a finish line, she would have quit playing
basketball in high school because she was told there's no
one going to be in the right mind going to
give a scholarship to girl with one leg. I played basketball,
And if she'd have quit there, she wouldn't have represented
(07:31):
our country in the Paralympics and have a gold medal
to her name. But see, she never saw a finish line.
She never saw a tape. She didn't say a place
to stop. How's things going in your marriage? Is there
a finish line? How things going with your kids? Are
(07:54):
you persevering? How's things going at work as you listen
to an art normal folks? How are things going in
your quest to fill the void in your part of
the community that desperately needs it? Y'all, Perseverance never takes
a break. There is no finish line. There's always going
(08:18):
to be need, There are always going to be those
that aren't as fortunate as you, and there's always going
to be an army in normal folks. Their numbers and
their effectiveness completely depend on you deciding. Perseverance never takes
a break, and there is no finish line. I hope
(08:41):
you'll think about that next time you listen to army
and normal folks, and as you listen more think about
how you can persevere and how there's no finish line
in the work we're trying to do and the work
that you can do in your community to help somebody
around you. That's shop talk, And before we go, I
want to let you know if there are any topics
(09:04):
you'd like to hear a shop talk on societal, political, racial,
faith or cultural. We'd love to hear about them. You
can email me anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot us.
Drop me a line on some topics you think might
(09:25):
be appropriate for shop talk, and if I feel like
I have anything to offer them, well, I'll open my
big mouth and share them with you. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'll see you next week.
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