Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Emily Watson
These are the questions that I frequently get and my answers. Hopefully my answers help you with your answers when you get asked the same kinds of questions.
Q: How did you like Tulsa?
A: I loved it. This school was perfect for me in many ways. It is a very small Division 1 private school in North East Oklahoma. It was an hour and a half away from my parents so it wasn’t too close but not too far away from them. The conference I competed in was the American Athletic Conference, which was very competitive, I would consider it one of the most challenging ones for softball. I got lucky with the best coaches and teammates. I have friends for life that were my teammates, competed with other sports for the university, and classmates that were not in sports. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to play softball for the University of Tulsa. Reign Cane!
Q: What was it like playing pro vs. college?
A: In college I got to live with my teammates on campus, study with them, and be with them all year except the summers. In pro, we lived in hotels and we were only together during season, which is about 2 months. When you play professionally, you’re not in school so in your free time you work out or go to the training room for hours. In college, I worked out with my team and had a rigid schedule of what I did for training and recovery. In pro, it was up to me on how I train, practice and recover. There is a lot more freedom when you play pro, but that’s why you are now a responsible adult that gets paid to work so you know what you need to do. You need a lot of self discipline to do well when you play professionally. I made up my own workout routine, practice itineraries, and what I did in the training room. It was not like that in college, I did what I was told. I was on the Chinese National Softball team so it was difficult to bond with my teammates since they don’t speak English and I don’t speak Mandarine. It was fun learning their language a little bit and their culture. It was still the same game of softball so we were able to be great teammates.
Q: What was your major at Tulsa?
A: I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management. I started out my first semester of college undeclared, then I went to mechanical engineering starting my second semester of my freshman year. Since I didn’t start out mechanical engineering, my class schedule was thrown off and my pre-requisites weren’t lining up. I lasted 3 semesters until I couldn’t keep up without taking classes in order. I wanted a major that worked with my softball schedule and was way less stressful to study for but still held tons of value. I chose business management because that would give me time to decide what to do after college and a wide variety of options to work with. You can work for anyone with a business degree.
Q: What was your master’s degree in?
A: I have a Master of Nonprofit Management degree. I’m going to be honest, I chose this degree because it had the word “management” in it. It also worked well with my softball schedule. This degree was not easy and I’m not sure I would have passed without covid making things go online. I was able to watch recorded classes when I had to miss the live class for softball practice, travel and games. Your next question is probably “are you passionate about nonprofits?” Well my answer used to be no, but when I learned more about nonprofits, I realized that I love what nonprofits stand for. Nonprofits provide what the government cannot but should. Businesses focus on providing what the government doesn’t provide but with the intention of maximizing money coming in. Nonprofits do the same but with the intention of bettering their society and community as their focus before money. Let me know if that makes sense.
Q: What was it like working with the famous Duck softball team?
A: I was so happy to work with this special team. They are a team that believes in themselves and each other. Any group of athletes can have amazing athletic ability, but this team is top ranked because they have the common goal of winning conference and a national title. They worked on being the best teammates possible by doing motivational meetings, working with a psychologist, and taking notes when a coach talks to them. They ask questions and pay attention. When they watch video on themselves and their opponents, it is like a classroom. They love to learn the game and prepare to defeat every opponent they face. The level of greatness was satisfying to work with.
Q: What do you want to do with your degrees?
A: I am currently a scheduling manager and accounting assistant for a designer blinds company in San Diego. I am a contributing citizen and helping my society with my first full-time job. I would love to use my knowledge, experiences and connections to eventually start a nonprofit. This website will hopefully become a foundation that can provide athletes with grants, scholarships, resources and relatable content.
Those are the top 5 questions I usually get asked. I hope my answers help you when people ask you the same questions or same kinds of questions. Please head over to the Contact page and submit some questions for me for my next Q & A!