“Is your favorite sport football?” “You must be good at math!” “Do you love the color red?” “Are you best friends with ALL the football players?”
These are questions asked to me more times than not. Over and over, day after day. Assumptions made by people to identify me as a person. All because of my last name.

To be completely honest, not one of those statements above is correct. No, football is not my favorite sport. No, I’m not good at math. I hate the color red. And I’m not friends with ALL the football players because I’m the “coach’s daughter.”

As if high school isn’t hard enough, imagine having your dad not only work at your high school, but also teach you and your friends, AND be a varsity football coach. I always have to be on my best behavior because I never know what teacher is watching. I feel pressure to do well on every test because if I don’t they will talk to my dad about why aren’t I putting in enough effort. On the first day of each semester, my teachers already have a pre-set idea of who I am because of my last name, and wanting to have a conversation with me about how great my dad is in front of your whole class. (I think to myself, Yeah I know that. He’s my dad.)

The worst part of it all is that most of the time I’m known as the Coach’s Daughter. I do have a name people, and it’s Katie. Part of our job as teenagers is to figure out who we are. That’s been hard for me because I have been in the shadow of my dad. Most kids come out of their parents shadow once they are in high school. That’s kind of hard for me though since I come to school every day with my dad.

Not everything is negative though about having the last name I do. Don’t get me wrong there. Having the last name I’m sure has helped me out: connections and opportunities, like getting into the National Honors society, and getting me out of bad situations that I have been in.

So here is the real me, my name is Katie. My favorite sport is swimming, and my favorite color is black. My favorite subject in school is psychology— And I have lots of different friend groups. Some include a few football players and some don’t.