Female students at Gravette High School heard from special guest speaker Valorie Kondos Field today. Better known as “Miss Val,” she is a former UCLA gymnastics head coach, seven-time NCAA National Championship coach, four-time Conference Coach of the Year, and Pac-12 Gymnastics Coach of the Century.
Miss Val shared her unconventional career path and how she learned to move forward without having answers. A former professional ballet dancer who had never competed in gymnastics nor finished college, she stepped into the UCLA head coaching role with a very different background from others. She told students that fear of other people’s opinions can keep us from seizing opportunities, and reflected that if social media had existed when she was offered the job, she might have been too worried about criticism to accept it. Instead, she learned to ask questions, make mistakes, and trust that she could figure things out.
Throughout the talk, Miss Val challenged students to rethink the way they respond to adversity. She asked them to take notes, cross out “failure,” and write down the reminder, “I can do hard things.” Her message was that much of our growth happens through difficulty, not accomplishments.
She also asked students to think about the 1,440 minutes they receive each day and how much of that time is devoted to social media, entertainment, and outside noise. Miss Val encouraged them to make room to truly unplug and take time to think about their goals. Later, she shared how her perspective changed after a breast cancer diagnosis in 2014, when she began replacing the phrase “I have to” with “I get to.” That small change, she said, helped her approach chemotherapy with gratitude.
Miss Val shared with students that courage, gratitude, and the willingness to do hard things can shape the direction of their lives. That does not mean they need to have everything figured out before they begin. They can ask questions, learn from mistakes, and trust themselves to figure out what comes next.
Thank you to Samantha Luther and Fran Howard for organizing the event and bringing a fresh perspective to the young women at GHS. And thank you to Miss Val for visiting Gravette and sharing her story with our students.
