Sue Ankrom Character Analysis

Ara Parasheghian once said, “A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” Being a coach is a very heroic act. Sue Ankrom has been a coach for over twelve years. She created many bonds and relationships with her players; sometimes, even helping them through hard times not involving sports. One heroic trait about Sue is she is an open honest person, because of this trait she became a coach. Sue was inspired to become a coach because she liked how she created bonds with her previous coaches and wanted to be there for others. Her former cross country coach and her were very close and talked about every mental or physical struggle. From that she knew she needed to have an open door policy. She volunteered her time ensuring her players knew they could talk to her about anything, whenever they needed. Some people don’t have someone they can talk to and trust so her always being there made her a hero

According to The Psychology of Heroism, “...we discovered that heroes tend to have eight traits, which we call The Great Eight. The traits are smart, strong, resilient, selfless, caring, charismatic, reliable, and inspiring” (Cherry). She is very inspiring, whenever anyone needed advice or encouragement on anything in general she was the go to person. She remembers one time one of her players was dealing with relationship issues and she told her to do what she need to do in order to stay safe. She inspired that girl in ways no one else ever did. Another few traits that she posses is selflessness and caring; no matter who it was or what they needed she would be there to help. That is a very heroic act a lot of ways. Some people she worked with didn’t see much caring or love at home. She saw them as more even if they had a rough home life that doesn’t mean they are bad. Sue saw selflessness and caring at home from her parents and knew it was her job to show it to