Helena High senior Vanessa Walsh is a three-sport athlete with Bengals volleyball, basketball, and softball. She says spending time with her teammates is the highlight of each season.
Kempson Cross / SWX
“I love playing the sport and it’s always fun to get out there and do that. But the people that you get to spend time with and that I’m with every single day after school is my teammates and they’re great people,” said Vanessa.
Vanessa is currently exploring a couple service-minded career paths and one of them is education.
“I want to see what it’s like to be an elementary school teacher and asked my counselors if I could do an internship with some of my basketball coaches that are elementary school teachers,” said Vanessa.
Heather Madsen says this is her 6th year teaching third grade at Warren Elementary School. This winter will mark her 8th season coaching Helena basketball. She says Vanessa approached her with the internship idea last summer.
“I knew that it was just like ‘Yes! Please!’ come hang out with us and be a part of our day so we were able to get things rolling. This is our first full week so she’s still kind of getting used to the kids and their names and things like that but the one day she was gone for a volleyball game the kids were like ‘Where’s Vanessa?!’” said Heather Madsen.
“The way she teaches is really engaging and so she makes sure that all of them feel a part of the lesson and are listening no matter what with her mirror hands and everything. It make my days 10 times better,” said Vanessa.
Bengals head coach Lindsey Day says Vanessa is a coach on the floor for the volleyball squad.
“We call her ‘V’. She brings so much to our team. A lot of great leadership on and off the court. She’s such a great student at the high school but then carries that over into athletics. Truly the most un-selfish athlete she’s ever coached. She has helped me run summer volleyball camps. She has a real gift for coaching and working with children,” said Lindsey Day.
