CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Expanding her skill set outside of coaching, Harvard softball assistant coach Chrissy Schoonmaker has spent the past year as a color commentator with the SEC Network+ at her alma mater, the University of South Carolina.
 
Along with her role in the Crimson coaching staff as a leader in virtual programming for the team during the past pandemic year, Schoonmaker has taken her talents down south during the past season to pursue her passion for color commentary.
 
Read the below Q&A to find out more about Schoonmaker's experience with color commentary and her first season with the Crimson.
 
1. Can you describe your role as a color commentator with the SEC Network+ and the University of South Carolina?
My role as color commentator through the SEC Network+ and the University South Carolina is to add analysis to the broadcast. I work with a play-by-play partner and we "call" the game. My role is to add depth, background information, anecdotes and strategy conversation to the game. My job is to enhance the experience for the viewers by adding any insights I see or have. I usually interview the head coaches for both teams prior to the games and get stories, behind the scenes information and insights on their rosters to share in the broadcast. We also work with a statistician and they share interesting statistics with us during the broadcast that are changing in real time and are pertinent to the situations that are taking place. As a former collegiate player and current coach, there are often times I am asked to share a rule, a breakdown of what decision making might be taking place, what strategy could be being discussed in a huddle and other strategic insights. Our producers have given great feedback thus far and they constantly remind me that my job is to talk about the sport I love.
 
2. How did you first become interested in color commentary?
The opportunity presented itself to me last season while I was working at South Carolina and I seized it as I knew it would be a lot of fun, knew I would grow and learn from the experience and viewed it as a new challenge. I have my Master's in Mass Communication and Journalism so I do have some background in the area of communication and journalism. I truly believe in having a growth mindset and I believed that my involvement with this side of the game would allow me to grow in the sport, stretch as a professional and challenge me in new ways. In graduate school, I had done some work with broadcasts and had been a guest commentator before, so I did have some background prior to the opportunity with the SEC Network+. The interest was always there, yet coaching has always been my primary focus, so I never really pursued it prior to last season as I had always been in season with our current team. One thing that is interesting about being a color analyst is the shift in perspective that takes place. My perspective on the big picture game has shifted from my time in the booth and I feel myself noticing different things now that I don't always see when I am in the dugout or coaching the bases. The lens has widened, and it's been great to take a 30,000-foot view of the game especially as I look to continue to grow as a coach.
 
3. What do you like most about being a color commentator?
Working as a color analyst is really fun because it challenges me to think in the moment and process what I am seeing on the field, what I am seeing on the television broadcast and what I am hearing in my headset all at once. I really enjoy the interviews that I get to have with other head coaches and seeing the personalities of the student-athletes. I get to ask questions on strategy, coaching philosophies and background stories that I wouldn't normally ask. On the recruiting trail and throughout the year I speak with many coaches, but the questions that I am asking pre-game are more based on strategy and their plan for a given game. It's been awesome to learn and hear some of the ways these teams train and prepare, and how they strategically go at certain opponents and situations. I've learned a lot about the value of match-ups. The coaches have been really open with their programs and have afforded me opportunities to watch them practice and learn new things which I have found to be really rewarding. I work in college athletics to impact young people and specifically the young women in the sport of softball, so it has been really rewarding to share the stories of these young women, celebrate their successes, promote the game and learn new things to take back to our student-athletes.
 
4. What have your first six months with the Harvard Softball program been like?
My time with the Harvard Softball program has been incredible so far. It is certainly a very different year for many people and many programs, ours included. In the fall, we trained our first years on campus and it was great to train them at Soldiers Field and the Kaplan Hitting Facility and to be working with our student-athletes in person. I had the chance to walk around Harvard Yard, Cambridge and take in a beautiful fall in Boston. This spring has been a little different in that I am leading our virtual programming and the majority of our enrolled group are taking their classes from home. We meet regularly on Zoom for chalk talks, book clubs, mental performance sessions, and team meetings. It is a different type of engagement and coaching, yet I am proud of the resilience and mindset that each of our student-athletes have shown during this year especially with us having no spring season in 2021. I've been watching a ton of recruiting film, have spent many hours on Zoom and have been connecting with student-athletes, fellow coaches and future Crimson through various devices. The student-athletes are the best part of my day and why I chose to get into coaching. They continue to impress me with their brilliance, their work ethic and their discipline and I always look forward to our connections.
 
5. How do you stay connected to the team during remote work?
During remote work, we are regularly engaged with the team via Zoom, FaceTime calls, phone calls and text messages. We do check-in calls with our players to get a sense of how they are doing and how things are going. Occasionally they send a picture of a sunset, of their pets or something fun going on within their day. They have grown up in a connected society, so although the connections are mostly virtual right now, we are still staying very engaged. The chat in our Zoom meetings often has me in tears laughing as they are some of the most clever and hilarious people I've ever met. Our connections may look different right now, yet we have remained very connected and continue to look to build upon that headed into the next academic year. We have a Google classroom that we have utilized which has been a great way to share different things that we have come across that they may be interested in. We have done a ton of work on our mindset and our mental approach, and a lot of that work is housed here. This virtual classroom has sort of been a landing spot for all things Harvard Softball during the pandemic.
 
6. What are you most looking forward to when the team is back together on campus?
As far as return to campus goes, I am most looking forward to time in person with our student-athletes. Practices are an opportunity to grow and the ball field is our classroom as educators and coaches, so I am certainly looking forward to being reunited with all of them at Soldiers Field. There are so many candid moments that take place just from being in person and those are the types of moments that we have all missed this last year. Dugout conversations, walks across the Charles River, coffee and tea in Harvard Square, and of course competing as a team against another opponent. We have kept the thought of competing as a team together at the forefront of our minds and it is something we are all anticipating upon our return to campus.
 
7. Anything else you'd like to share about your experience?
Harvard is an incredible place, and I am thankful to get to coach our student-athletes and be a part of this extraordinary program. Coach Allard provides great mentorship and leadership to both the young women we coach and myself and I have learned many lessons from watching her lead this program especially during these unprecedented times. I think this pandemic has taught us the value of flexibility, the value of connections and how to make adjustments. I continue to remain incredibly grateful for the opportunities softball has given to me and my hope is to be able to impact the sport and our young women the way that softball and our student-athletes have impacted me.