Sports are ... so fun! " says Holly Gutelius as she climbs out of the Connecticut River after she's misjudged her leap into the sleek boat in which she's learning to scull. "I can't resist trying new sports," she explains, reaching for a towel. "Challenging, freeing, satisfying—what else can I say!"

Holly coaches women's soccer and lacrosse at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She's been on the staff at Wesleyan for two years, and says she couldn't imagine a better place to pursue her love of sports and her desire to help other young women enjoy them, too.

During three of Holly's four undergraduate years at Princeton University—which has one of the top athletic departments in the country—its lacrosse team made it to the Division One NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] tournament. And one year they played in the Final Four.

"I had a great coach in college—Chris Sailer, the Division One coach of the year 2000—and was part of such a special team, that when I graduated, I just wasn't ready to let go of it all. So, coaching was the answer—not that it wasn't quite a leap to make."

Holly is learning fast, often by reflecting on the qualities she appreciated in Chris. "She was just so perceptive," Holly recalls. "She had extraordinary intuition and was wonderfully knowledgeable about the game. She was able to tap into each individual player in a special way that brought out the most in her and in all of us as a group. She was able to organize a group of players from many different backgrounds and make the pieces of the puzzle fit well together.

"Chris expected a lot of her players, and so do I. I like to meet with my captains often, because they are my 'eyes' to the team. From where they are, they can see things I can't see, and with no more than a few pointers from me, they can take care of situations on their own."

However, like Shaun Pollock (see interview on p. 12), Holly has had to keep an eye on team discipline and behavior off the field. She says that in her attempt to increase players' commitment to the athletic program, she once felt she had to change the existing culture, which often included boisterous postgame rituals.

"As the coach and authority figure, I had to be concerned, even though I might be alone in my stand. This disturbed me quite a bit, and more than once I actually wondered if I had landed at the wrong school.

"After one particular incident, I called a meeting with the team and told them, as tactfully as possible, how I felt. But they were amazed that I would even dare to question their behavior.

"As I usually do in these situations, I called a fellow Christian Scientist to pray with me—only to be surprised again. At first, he was like, 'But you know, this happens all the time.' I was frustrated by his comment. It was help I needed, not just reassurance that this wasn't unusual!

"Then he said something that brought things into perspective: 'Remember what happened with Jesus? He stood up for what he believed. Stones were thrown at him, he was crowned with thorns, he was put on a cross, but he never swayed; he never gave in to his enemies. Maybe your team's behavior is upsetting. Maybe the waters are a little muddy. But you've got to stick with what's right—what you believe in.'

"He referred me to a passage on page 540 of Science and Health where Mary Baker Eddy wrote about divine law stirring up the belief in evil to its utmost, 'bringing it to the surface and reducing it to its common denominator, nothingness.' It says, 'The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream.' I really, really love that thought.

"The players told me they felt like they were being personally attacked by the stand I was taking against well-worn traditions. I reexamined my thinking, and I realized I had muddied the waters a bit, but I knew that my motives had been pure. It was the moral and spiritual welfare of the team that mattered most to me. The more I prayed about all these things, the more convinced I became that deep down a purification process must be going on.

"Finally, a member of the team who had been so upset that she hadn't spoken to me for ages, stopped by my office. We talked a little, brought things to the surface, and all the animosity suddenly lifted. We had the best talk, and it was like, 'You know, it's over. Let's move on.'

"Later, it came out that no one had ever really thought about their public behavior. No one had ever said anything before. It had always been OK and even supported to some extent. And when the players saw that here was a coach who cared what they did—on and off the field—they didn't quite know how to handle it.

"When they eventually appreciated that it was really important to me that the teams I coach should be respected at all times, looked up to, and be seen setting a good example, everything just clicked into place—the stream was purified!"

Holly also recalls another time when her thought had to be purified—fast. It was at the height of her lacrosse career, when a player she was marking in a "fierce sort of battle" swung her stick so viciously that she hit Holly in the foot.

"My teammates all wanted to look at the bottom of my foot, which was badly discolored, but this concern only made me more angry and resentful toward my opponent. I was unable to walk without crutches, and missed a game. But this didn't stop me from praying. With God's help, I was back on the field within two days.

"What's interesting to me is that the real healing, which was more than just physical, took several months. I was sitting in church one evening when I began to see that the incident, whether deliberate or not, was no more than another of those muddy rivers calling for cleansing. It couldn't contaminate the beauty of the game of lacrosse played at the highest level or the sheer enjoyment of being an athlete. It wasn't until I fully understood that my opponent's action on the field didn't represent her true nature, that my anger faded away. When it eventually happened, I couldn't believe I had let it take so long. After all, how long does it take for one child of God to forgive another child of God, whichever team they play for?"

Holly says that sports—supported by spiritual training and a steady commitment to God—have freed her in so many ways. "Nothing can stop you from doing your best. From improving your own time. Trying new events. You don't have to feel you should be slower or weaker because you're shorter, or less experienced, or a woman, or injury-prone, or whatever. Nothing can deprive us of a true sense of achievement or curb our joy in any way."

Not even a tumble in the Connecticut River too early on a summer morning?

"Definitely not!"