This article was originally published in The Spectator, March 2010.

This past year has been an eventful one for Husson University’s Kissy Walker. A year with a North Atlantic Conference Championship, NAC Coach of the Year Award, coaching the NAC player of the year, and balancing her family. But who is Kissy Walker?
Born with the name Mary, Walker quickly lost it to the nickname ‘Kissy’.

“When I was born I looked like a Kissy doll…it was a doll that when you squeezed its hand it would kiss and all the neighbors would come over and ask where was the little Kissy doll, and then after a while doll dropped,” Walker said.

Walker’s love for basketball started at a young age. Her neighbor, described as almost like a second father, would play basketball with her outside in the driveway when she was in early grammar school. This was her earliest remembrance of the sport. By middle school, Walker was ready to play organized basketball for her middle school.

From there, Walker’s love for basketball only accelerated. She went on and played at Cony High School and her skills led her to the University of Maine to continue playing the sport she grew accustomed to. Walker’s easy-going attitude and hard work earned her the title of Captain of her team her senior year. She recalls the experience as enjoyable.

“We (UM basketball team) had a lot of fun actually…we were a pretty close-knit team…I guess as a Captain and as a point guard, I was kind of looked at to run the show.”

Along with playing basketball at UMO, Walker also earned her degree in Physical Education. With her new degree, Walker landed herself a job at Holbrook School, in Holden, teaching physical education to fifth through eighth graders. Walker spent three years at the school before her ex-teammate from UM offered her a job at Husson College as a Physical Education assistant. Walker decided that she would take advantage of her new career at Husson and enroll in the school to also earn her Business degree. After the degree, Walker spent time helping Education majors with job placement.

In 2008, Walker was asked to be the Director of Wellness for the school all while teaching courses in the Education department and coaching the Women’s basketball team for Husson.

Walker explained that her passion for teaching came from wanting to make school enjoyable for students. She didn’t enjoy school so she wanted to give students an enjoyable atmosphere. “I wanted to provide an environment for my athletes so that they could have a good time.”

Her busy schedule does catch up to her though. Balancing an eight year old and her family, her Husson career, and her basketball is no easy task. “As a coach you just learn by nature to organize and schedule and multi-task.”
Walker is sincerely happy with where she is in life right now. She stressed that realistically, she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else or have any other career.

“I’m a pretty simple person, I’m enjoying what I’m doing right now and you never know what tomorrow is going to hold…Husson is a great place for giving me opportunities…the thing I’m most proud of is that I’ve been coaching for nineteen years.”

Husson’s legendary coach, Clara Swan, also coached for nineteen years and had the Swan Center named after her for memorial. Time can only tell if our campus will see a building named after Mary ‘Kissy’ Walker.

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