Gloria Kemp on the beach doing the Warrior II pose

Faculty Focus: Gloria Kemp

2/26/2020

by Paul Downey '92

High School Girls' Volleyball Head Coach and Fitness Instructor, Gloria Kemp, juggles many responsibilities at Ensworth and beyond as a coach, nutrition teacher, and professional athlete.

Although focused on sports most of her life, Kemp considered a government career after committing to play volleyball at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in her home state of Florida. “Working for the CIA seemed like a really appealing job as a 16-year-old,” she says, “Because you don't know anything.”

After years in athletics, she has discovered that nutrition and physical performance are a life-long endeavor. “It's definitely more intentional now,” she observes. “Even the workouts that I do are more of a holistic, whole-body approach rather than specific, explosive training. That's beneficial for the long-term sustainability of a healthy life.”

Since joining Ensworth in the fall of 2018, Kemp has started teaching nutrition classes to students. “Nutrition has become a big part of my life over the past five years,” she explains. “It's definitely something I wish I knew about when I was younger because it could've taken me further in athletics. My performance would have been better.” Coach Kemp has switched to a mostly whole-food, plant-based diet, which leads her to spend a lot of time at the dining hall’s salad bar. Her creative, nutritious salads have piqued the interest of students and fellow faculty members who ask her to make salads for them.

The quest for greater balance led Kemp to become certified as a teacher of yoga, a practice she was introduced to by her college coach. Kemp remembers that her coach was calm, even when nine months pregnant. “She had this stillness about her,” she recalls. “I was intrigued by that."

Kemp’s 200-hour yoga teacher training led her to an ashram on Mallorca, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Spain. This trip, along with the spiritual lessons of living in a monastery, inspired her to pursue new passions such as travel, rock climbing, and hiking.

During the 2018-2019 winter break, she traveled from Nashville to Los Angeles, stopping in iconic locations like the Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon, and Joshua Tree. It was on this trip that she began a creative project. “‘Warrior of the World' had been a phrase that I had been saying to myself. It seemed like it was getting louder and louder, so I decided to go to a new place every month and do the ‘Warrior II’ yoga pose,” she shares.

To further her healthy, balanced life, Kemp is pursuing her holistic nutrition certification, which will also benefit the students. She’s thankful to be in a school that values mental and physical health.

“I teach yoga and nutrition,” says Kemp. “The fact that those are available at a high school is amazing. And the emphasis that we put on community here is a huge part of having a healthy life. You just can't do it alone.”