As the sun begins to rise in the morning and people snooze their alarms for their 8 a.m. class, Jen Burris finishes up a workout and heads to class, followed by club meetings, individual skills on the turf field, grabs lunch and finally, returns to the field to start practice.
It is no secret that being a student-athlete requires discipline and commitment. As a field hockey senior captain and exercise science major from Virginia Beach, Virginia, Burris’s team and academic success has earned her The Rotunda’s Student-Athlete of the Month for October.
“She’s always been a good athlete. That’s the bedrock of a good player and she’s hugely committed to the physical side of it. From a skill development point of view, she has spent lots of time on the field on her own just working on her skill,” said field hockey head coach Iain Byers.
Her skills come from playing the game for many years now.
“I started playing when I was nine years old. My parents put me through every sport like any normal kid and I guess I just gravitated towards field hockey,” said Burris.
As she prepares to finish her last fall semester at Longwood, Byers remembers how he recruited Burris.
“I watched her play and she came in for recruiting visits. She’s a great kid. She’s very approachable, very confident and I felt like she would be a great fit for the school,” said Byers.
Director of sports performance, strength and conditioning Rick Canter has also been a great impact in Burris’ career at Longwood.
“Jen is very focused and driven, and some of the qualities that she displays, like her discipline and her commitment, are things that we like to see in our team captains,” said Canter.
Burris has stepped up as a leader in her team mostly for the past two years.
“It’s definitely a lot more of a responsibility than my teammates realize. A lot of people come to you for any kind of problem, even if it’s outside of field hockey because they look at you as that person to go to,” said Burris. “I think it’s…helped me grow as a person.”
As a captain, Byers said though she has given some speeches “she’s definitely one that leads by example.”
While captains have many roles on a team, Burris believes that every player should know they have a role and feels “empowered.”
“It’s not like a dictatorship kind of thing, I don’t like to be that person at all,” said Burris. “I know all my teammates would say that I’m very intimidating, but I don’t mean to be. It’s just a lot of responsibility.”
Canter said, “She has improved tremendously in her leadership ability. She’s increased her self-awareness to a very high degree, and has realized more about herself from her own personal growth and she’s really continued throughout the past year on putting more focus on the ability to lead others.”
In her career at Longwood, Burris has gone through very special moments, as well as rough patches in her career. Even though things haven’t gone the team’s way the last couple of years, she cherishes every second of her experience with her team.
At the end of October this semester, as the team headed back to Longwood from their victory on the road at Missouri State University, Burris experienced one of the most special moments of her career. With about 50 seconds left on the scoreboard, Burris managed to put the ball in the net from the baseline, scoring the game-winning shot of the game.
“It was a special moment for me. After four years on the field at Longwood, it was the first time I cried tears of joy because I knew then that I had contributed something and all those four years just kind of went into that moment,” said Burris.
Looking down with the smile on her face, she continued, “After the game, Iain came up to me and gave me a hug and said, ‘great job, it’s been a great four years’ and it made us both emotional so I think that was very special.”
“It was one of those beautiful goals. I would say from a game point of view, it’s one of the best and proudest moments that she’s had and from a coach’s point of view, seeing her growth and development, from where she was as a freshman to where she’s now as a mature young lady, we’re going to miss her,” said Byers, agreeing with her.
Academically and athletically, after years of hard work and sometimes defeat, Burris has proud moments to take home with her. Even in the weight room, there’s been moments of happiness.
“One moment, particularly in the weight room, was when I was able to see her perform her first pull up which was a tearful moment for her and a very proud moment for me,” said Canter. “She’s been a tremendous athlete that I’ve been able to coach and it’s been a real privilege.”
The hard work and pain that she’s gone through to get to where she is now is something hard to forget for her as well.
“The most frustrating thing about this experience is putting 13 years into the sport and in the past two years we haven’t made the tournament,” explained Burris. “Even though obviously winning isn’t everything about sports, I think the competitiveness in me wanted more satisfaction after all the hard work I’ve been putting in all 4 years.”
Along with her teammates, Burris says Coach Byers has been a great person to have in college. “He has been a role and even outside of field hockey if you ever have a problem,” says Burris. “I’ve had a very great relationship with him and I know that it’ll continue to be that way after college too. He always has helped me keep my head on straight.”
Byers said it will be tough to see her go.
“She’s just a great person to be around. If she’s having a good day and is happy then everyone around her is happy,” said Byers, laughing. “She’s a joy to be around and I’m going to miss that side of things, just the day-to-day interactions and I’m sure the rest of the team will be sad to see her go.”
