This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for the 2020-21 season for both the men and women.
I managed to survive a few days of quarantine in my apartment, and now have my first full week of working in my new office behind me. You can imagine some of what the last five days entailed. Of course, the big thing hanging over all of us is what will come of the Fall season.
Admin Meetings
I had meetings with the Athletic Director (AD), Compliance person (also the Women’s Lacrosse coach), Travel Coordinator (also the Women’s Basketball coach), and Admissions person for Athletics on Monday. On Tuesday it was our Student Services Coordinator (also the Women’s Soccer Coach). Thursday I had lunch with the AD and the Associate Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator, who also does duty as the Bowling coach and is the longest serving member of the staff. In fact, she coached volleyball for a while once upon a time.
I’m sharing an office suite sort of set up with the Assistant Sports Information Director, and briefly met the Sports Information Director who is also the Baseball coach.
Player Meetings
Before I was off quarantine I had a short group Zoom with several members of the women’s team as an initial introduction. I’ve now begun doing 1-on-1 Zoom conversations with players to I can start getting a sense of who they are.
Recruiting
This is very likely to be the thing that takes up most of my time for a while. Obviously, I had no sense coming in of what the recruiting situation was like here. And we’re not just talking about one team. I’ve got two to handle!
Not must I get up to speed on things, there’s also the fact that for a couple of months nobody did anything. The former head coach left and the assistant who’d been handling a lot of that stuff was shut out of the system since April. It might not seem like much, but 3 months is a lot of time with no player evaluations and zero prospect communications.
On top of this, Medaille uses Front Rush, which I haven’t used before. So I’m learning new stuff on top of it all.
Looking Ahead
There’s a lot to do. I’m way, way under water with it all right now! But I’m slowly paddling my way toward the surface.
I have more 1-on-1 sessions with players on the women’s team. I want to start doing them with the men as well. They are not as big a priority as the women given they play in the second term, but I want at least start to get a sense of who they are before school starts.
I need to have a budget discussion so I can see what that looks like. Right now I just have a sense of what’s in the fundraising accounts for each team.
Hopefully, I can add a second assistant coach. There’s someone I need to speak with about that who might be interested on coming joining us.
And, of course, lots and lots of recruiting work. Identification of prospects is a big part of that. I also, though, plan to put in place some systems for communications.
Maybe that will happen in time for preseason – assuming we have one.
6 Steps to Better Practices - Free Guide
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter today and get this free guide to making your practices the best, along with loads more coaching tips and information.
