Black Stick ready for London and beyond
Thursday 19 July 2012, 5:12PM
520 views
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NazW0sthjLo
Olympic hockey player Kayla Sharland is hoping for at least a top six finish in London but has her sights set on long-term career goals as well.
The Black Stick and Massey student is clearly confident about her team’s chances, though she says juggling study and hockey is tough at times.
“But it’s good to have a balance and good to do something outside of hockey as well,” she says. “Balancing assignments when you’re away on tour, that’s probably the hardest thing. We have a lot of meetings, we have a lot of trainings and often in your rest time you want to rest, we have to be quite disciplined and make sure we do our study.”
Having other players in her team studying has helped, as well as the support she gets from Massey.
“Massey has been really good, they’ve obviously helped me throughout my career. I’ve been studying for about ten years now and they’ve obviously allowed me to balance out playing hockey at the top level and completing my study at the same time. They’ve been very supportive right throughout.”
Ms Sharland, who is studying a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise, already has plans for life beyond hockey.
“I’m looking to hopefully finish my degree at the end of this year. I want to get a job at the end of this, hopefully something towards management, along those lines.”
She believes study is important for athletes as it gives them something to fall back on, as well as creating balance in their lives, and has found Massey to be “very supportive of sport in general”.
London 2012 will be the 26-year-old’s third Olympics and she says the team is headed in the right direction as the games approach.
“I think we’re definitely on the right path for doing well at this Olympics.”
Ms Sharland is just one of dozens of Massey University students and alumni competing at the games. You can follow their progress, read insight and commentary from the University’s academic staff, and watch video content at Massey’s dedicated Olympics page.