Kelsey Corbin begins her third year as Ball State Women's Basketball Director of Operations.
Photo by Susan J. Wilden.

Ever watched a movie and seen the list of credits at the end and wondered what a gaffer, a best boy or a key grip does? Or, as a sports fan, wondered what it is that the Director of Operations actually does in his or her job?

In the case of the latter, just about everything, within the scope of NCAA rules.

Kelsey Corbin, who serves as Director of Operations for the Ball State Women’s Basketball program, begins her third season with the Cardinals this year, having moved into the position after finishing her career as a player for the team. The Fort Wayne, Indiana (Northrop) native won 70 games as a Cardinal and tied the postseason WNIT record for assists with 13 in her final game against Kentucky. Today, she serves as Kelly Packard’s right-hand woman and does the little (and not so little) things that keep a team running. Corbin is also responsible for scheduling games, as noted in an earlier SPM article.

Corbin sat down with SportsPageMagazine.com to talk about her duties. 

SPM: Researcher, travel agent, event planner, enforcer, scheduler, surrogate Mom, go-fer, Concierge (but not a practice body or scout -- that’s illegal). Did I leave out any of the hats you wear on a daily basis? And if I did, what are they?

KC:  I hope that covers it all.

SPM: How would you describe your job as D-Ops and what is your typical day?

KC: It’s kind of one of those jobs where you've got to be on your feet -- be on your toes all the time.

There are a lot of things that come up during the day,and because I don’t have recruiting responsibilities and because I can only be on the court in a limited role; there’s a lot of things which go on behind the scenes that I am able to do to relieve the rest of the coaching staff. So, a typical day, like you said, there may be a lot of hats I may have to wear. There are days where I’m only wearing the scheduling hat. There are days where I’m wearing the traveling hat, but for the most part, it is very integrated, where I may be doing a little bit of scheduling in the morning, and then turn to travel. Then when we’re with the kids, it changes to, especially when we’re on the road, sometimes the enforcer, sometimes the organizer and sometimes the surrogate Mom.

SPM: Some of the players on this year’s roster were once your teammates. How did you handle the transition from peer to person of authority and how did the players handle it? How hard was it to transition from player to D-ops?

KC:  I think it is something that has to be handled with a sense of awareness and as long as you are paying attention to it and you understand you have changed roles and changed positions and the relationships with those people I played with had to change drastically, but at the same time, not end up alienating them, as if I still continue to have a relationship with them. That is the most important thing. Although I am on the coaching side now, I still do understand what they do, how they do it, why they do it and how they understand things and the emotions and the ups and the downs they go through. I knew early on in my junior year that I was going to stay here and continue on as either Director of Ops or a graduate assistant.  I was able to start that transition a little earlier then if it was something that came about at the end of my playing career -- right after I graduated; I was able to start making that gap a little bit bigger between the rest of the team and myself after I was done. The nice thing, too, is now that Kiley [Jarrett] Porchia [Green] and Dana [Moorman] have graduated, there’s only two left, that I actually played with are Audrey [McDonald] and Kyleigh Jones.  Those are two of the most mature young women that I’ve been around when it comes to relationships and communication and that’s been the key to the transition from going from being their teammate to the coaching staff. They’ve been 50 percent of the transition going as smoothly as it was is because they were great at it, too.

SPM: What does Kelsey Corbin offer to this position that no one else can offer?

KC: I would think the biggest thing I have is the pride I have for the program, the passion I have for the program and making sure that the tradition that was started during the time I was playing here continues through each class that graduates. When you take pride in the job that you’re doing, it’s much easier to work harder, work smarter and want to put in the extra work to make sure that those kids that are still in the program have just as good of an experience as I felt like I had. When you’re working somewhere where you put your --  cliché as it is -- your blood, sweat and tears into, it’s very easy to work hard and make sure things run smoothly.

SPM: What role models do you have and who is it you seek the most when you have an issue from the job that requires outside input?

KC: I would immediately go to my family, probably more specifically, my parents.  I try to be very obvious about the fact that I look up to them and try to thank them and show them appreciation on a daily basis. They are two of the most well-rounded and well-mannered and thoughtful people I know. The respect I have for them comes from those times where I’ve been in difficult situations or made mistakes and they led me in the right direction. Outside of that? I know I have only known her for a little over a year now, but I can honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, Coach [Kelly] Packard has completely turned into somebody that I will continue to go to, not only for mentoring as a peer and a fellow coach, but for advice when it comes to life in general and relationships. She’s been nothing but a leader, not only to the girls but those of us on the staff, and she will continue, I hope, to do that for myself down the road.

SPM: The NCAA has limits on what you can and cannot do in your position, but there are a lot of intangibles that you can pass on to the players. What is it you would like to pass on?

KC:  The thing I’ve tried to … I have limitations, extreme limitations at times, and the thing that I am allowed to talk to them about, the thing that I can do with them is just help them out with the things which are not necessarily on-court specifics, like dribbling, shooting and passing. My main focus is, especially with the seniors this year, to make them understand that sense of urgency a little bit earlier than just their senior year. By that sense of urgency, I mean that, I think a lot of people, a lot of players gets into their senior year and it gets down to the last five, six seven games and they’re like “Oh no! I need to step it up! I need to start putting more time in and I need to sharpen my focus.” It should be starting earlier and earlier in their career. The earlier you feel that sense of urgency the better off you can be. I think especially this year, with the seniors we have, that sense of urgency was felt long before they ever became the soon-to-be graduating class. 

SPM:  You earned an undergraduate degree in psychology, which is atypical from what one normally can expect a coach on a collegiate level to have. There’s no question this is helping, but can you describe the edge it is giving you?

KC:  I’m a little biased, but I think having a background in psychology is going to help you in any job, when you’re dealing with people.   We stress and stress and stress communication, and part of communication is understanding who you’re talking to. Some people react, some people listen and some people digest differently. When you can understand the way that someone responds, what they’re going to listen to, it’s much easier for you to get your message across. As coaches, that’s our job, to get the message of we want them to do; we need to get that across.  If you know what’s going to make them do what you want them to do it’s much easier to get the end result. There are kids, especially when you are dealing with young women between the ages of 18 and 22, [whose] abilities to communicate range from high to low ... If you can understand how to communicate I think you can really get a lot done. So, a psychology background is something I use on an absolute daily basis -- understanding why someone is acting one way, why someone acts in a different way, why one player may take a comment as being negative, why one player may take a comment as being positive. Psychology comes in with communication every single day.  

SPM: Are you planning to make coaching your career and do you feel a position such as this is the way to start?

KC:  Yeah, absolutely. With the staff that we have here, there are a lot of things that I’m learning. I played under a great staff. A big part of becoming a successful coach is seeing different ideas, different ways of doing things and I think Coach P [Packard] would echo this as well, that she may be one of the most unconventional coaches out there. Learning from her on a daily basis and Lisa [McDonald] and Carter [Shaw] and Lindsay [Shade]; it’s such a well-rounded staff and such a well-rounded group of kids, that if I’m not learning on a daily basis, that’s my own fault because I have plenty of opportunities to become more educated and become a better coach for the future. So if I’m not learning something, I have no one to blame but myself. This is what I want to do and I questioned it hard-core in the beginning. There was a stint when Coach [Tracy] Roller was unable to coach and because of her leave of absence I was able to step in as an interim assistant coach and as hard as it was to go back to Director of Ops after that, it was something where I got my feet wet and got a taste of it, and immediately knew that I have to put my time in. That’s what I’m doing now, and I’m learning as much as I can. After that taste, there’s no question in my mind whether or not this is what I want to do. It’s difficult, it’s a different type of lifestyle, but I think from learning from Coach Packard you do have control over that work/life balance that sometimes goes hand in hand with coaching. There are times there isn’t much of a balance.

SPM:  Who is Kelsey Corbin?

KC:  The first thing that comes to my mind is I am 100 percent -- and switch between these two, depending on the day -- I am a huge Momma’s Girl and just as much as I am a Momma’s Girl I am pretty much a Daddy’s Girl, too. I am very much consumed with my family as much as I can be. That is one of the frustrating things about this job, just because my sisters and nieces and nephew are quite a ways away. I’m a family-oriented person; I like to work hard and I like to have a good time. I want to experience new things and knock off those events on the bucket list before I get too old. I’m pretty simple, I think; I’m not too complicated. I like to do my job and do it well, and outside of that, I surround myself with people I enjoy being around, which most of the time is family and close friends.

Tags: Ball State, Kelsey Corbin, MAC, Mid-American Conference, ncaa women's basketball