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Parental Perspective From An Elite Athlete

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Samantha Salvia is a championship athlete in two sports, Rhodes Scholar, water resources engineer, and mother of two. At Old Dominion University she won an NCAA Division I National Championship in field hockey and became Old Dominion’s first Rhodes Scholar. For more than a decade, she has played elite Ultimate Frisbee, winning multiple national and world championships with San Francisco Fury.

Salvia's experience as a competitor at the NCAA and elite international levels gives her a unique sports parent perspective now that she has kids in youth sports. Her hope is that her kids have the full breadth of athletic experience while they begin their journey through sports.

She wants her son to "win some close games, lose some close games, have teammates he loves, have teammates he doesn't get along with and has to learn to work with." With this in mind it makes it easy for her to sit back on the sidelines and just be present and supportive. She knows that regardless of the score at the end of a game, her son has an opportunity to learn and improve and continue to enjoy and benefit from all that sport has to offer.