Former Swimmer is Making an Impact in the Classroom as a Teacher

Former South Carolina swimmer Lauren Rosenberg (2010-2014) learned a lot from her coaches as a student-athlete. Now, what comes around, goes around as Rosenberg is an elementary school teacher for the daughter of head coach McGee Moody.

“It has definitely come full circle,” Rosenberg said. “Being able to see him from a different side, as a dad, has made our relationship stronger. He is very supportive. He doesn’t act like he’s my coach anymore. They trust me. I know if I ever had to tell them something, they would support me.”

“Our coaches take it seriously in terms of helping our student-athletes grow and prepare for the future,” Moody said. “Having it come full circle in that she is doing the same for my daughter is pretty neat.

“We talk about that all the time. My job doesn’t involve trying to land million-dollar contracts for my student-athletes when they’re done. The older I get, the more I see that my job is to teach them how to use the resources while they’re here to prepare them to go out and be successful in whatever field they choose. It’s about making sure they have learned to negotiate the speed bumps and challenges of being an athlete and a student at the same time, in the hopes that those challenges and how they’ve overcome them, teach them when they get out in real life.”

Rosenberg graduated from South Carolina in 2015 with a degree in elementary education and was happy to pursue a career that she had always dreamed about.

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was in the third grade,” Rosenberg said. “I had moved from Dallas (Tex.) to Columbus, Ohio, in the middle of that year. In Dallas, I wasn’t doing well academically that year, but I had a teacher who made a difference when I moved to Ohio. I maintained a relationship with her throughout the rest of elementary, middle and high school.”

Rosenberg works at Lake Carolina Elementary School’s upper campus in Blythewood, S.C. She noted that being a teacher is appealing because she experiences something different every day.

“It’s never boring,” Rosenberg said. “Being able to help kids get on the right track or make a difference is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. When they get something that they had been struggling with, and knowing you were a part of that, it’s so rewarding.

“Teaching elementary is a fun age. I’m teaching fifth grade. I used to teach third grade.  Fifth graders are at that age where you can really teach them about making the right decisions. You’re teaching them life skills and try to be a role model.”

“It’s neat to see our university and our program help develop someone who is impacting so many people through her teaching.”
– McGee  Moody, Head Coach

Moody recalled when he first met Rosenberg on a campus visit and knew she was going to be successful.

“I knew she was going to be a great teammate and somebody we’d talk about for a long time,” Moody said. “She came in, and she was a leader. You could tell, even as a freshman, that she had the characteristics to be a great teacher. It’s because of her and my wife, who’s also a teacher, that my daughter, Whitney, wants to be a teacher. She watches every move she makes. She even comes to her swim meets.”

Rosenberg also credits her former coach with helping her find her way as a student-athlete.

“He was the reason I came down here,” Rosenberg said of Moody. “I thought I had made my mind up about going to another school. When I came on my recruiting trip, I changed my mind, and a lot of that has to do with him. We’ve always had a good relationship.

“I knew I wanted to go to a big school from the beginning. A lot of it was the swimming aspect. Of course, the education was important. It was really the team that made a difference and him because he reminded me of my coach back home. I liked how the boy’s team and the girl’s team worked together in practice as one team. Being in the SEC was part of it as well. For swimming, the SEC is one of the top conferences.”

Rosenberg taught Whitney, in third grade a couple of years ago, and is now teaching her in fifth grade.

“I knew Whitney since she was about one years old. I used to see her on the pool deck,” Rosenberg said. “Their whole family has been supportive, so it’s not weird or awkward when we have parent-teacher conferences or anything like that.”

“It’s been really cool to watch because my daughter knew her as a swimmer, vaguely, when she was younger,” Moody said.  “Now she’s her teacher and by far, her favorite teacher.”

Rosenberg noted that her experience as a student-athlete helped prepare her for life as a professional.

“Being a student-athlete definitely teaches you time management,” Rosenberg said. “I didn’t really have that coming out of high school. You come to college, and you’re held accountable for your grades. My people skills also improved, and at South Carolina Athletics, they spend a lot of time on life skills and things like that to help you. I felt like I was more prepared than the regular student because I had all that support from the Athletics program.

“The whole experience was really like a family. To have a good relationship with the coach and the team was important because you spent so much time together. I felt like the coaches cared about swimming, but there was more to it. It was personal. They really cared about you. McGee was always really great. It was like having another dad away from home.”

“It’s neat to see our university and our program help develop someone who is impacting so many people through her teaching,” Moody said. “It’s one of the most fun relationships we’ve ever had. We had a great swimmer/coach relationship, and now that she has started teaching, it’s fun because we live in the neighborhood across the street from the school. We see her quite a bit. In all her classrooms, she has pictures of her as an athlete. It’s really cool.”