Five in five* with Senior Project Manager Angie Coakley

A former sprinter-slash-hurdler, Angie Coakley knows how to keep a level head, whether on the track or in the workplace. (This is a woman who used to warm up to Enya on her Walkman before college meets.) She brings over 25 years of agency experience to her role as senior project manager at Interrupt, but we wanted to know about all the other things that make Angie who she is. So, we asked.

Here's the latest installment of our Five in Five series, where we get to know a member of the Interrupt team with five questions in five minutes*.

Sports and being an athlete was everything that I knew as a kid. I grew up in a neighborhood of all boys, south of Bowling Green in Wayne, Ohio. In order to hang out with them I had to be the tough girl. It was when I was in high school and I was running that I discovered damn, I’m pretty fast. And that’s when I got a scholarship for running to go to college at the University of Akron. The lessons I learned there—organization, time management, teamwork—have made me a huge believer in team sports. I wanted my daughter Meg to experience the same. She just signed with a university in Ohio to play soccer and we’re overjoyed.

A lot of it is being a parent. Now that Meg is off to college, I’m figuring out me again. It’s exciting and fun, but it’s scary and overwhelming at the same time. Because having a kid, they’re your whole life for 18 years. So this transitional time will be a lot about finding who I am again.

I listen to everything, and I mean it when I say that. Lately I have had Megan Thee Stallion on, because my daughter loves her. But if you went back to the core of what I loved listening to when I was younger, I’m the biggest Prince fan in the world. Prince was pretty much my go-to for everything.

I am a crazy superstitious person. I’ll wear the exact same outfit I wore when a sports win happened. I knock on wood. I throw salt over my shoulder. There are certain things I always do to make sure I don’t jinx myself. I’m a diehard, crazy-ass Buckeye fan. But on game day, I will never wear anything that says Ohio State or even touch it because I believe I’ll jinx them. When we lost against Michigan in 2021, I realized I had an Ohio State bracelet on. So I know it was all my fault.

I’m just a dog person. I think dogs and animals sense what type of person you are. I also think it has something to do with the giving him treats twice a day like clockwork.

*It may have taken us (way) longer than five minutes to have this conversation. But it shouldn’t take you longer than five minutes to read it, so we think it still counts.