This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for the 2020-21 season for both the men and women.
Wow! Hadn’t realized it had been so long since my last entry. Time must really be flying! Which is kind of funny since not a lot had been going on. Well, at least in terms of volleyball. Plenty of other stuff.
Getting back to action
We got some good news this week. The college president reported zero current COVID cases on campus. A couple weeks ago it was around 20, so that’s a big development. Athletic activities are restarting. This week the low risk sports – as defined by the NCAA – were able to start doing some strength & conditioning stuff. Next week they can get going with sports-specific work. Volleyball is in the high risk category, so we have to wait a little longer, but hopefully only a couple weeks.
Player stuff
No new roster developments to report. The only significant bit of news has to do with the transfer who joined the women’s team. I reported last time that she won’t be eligible to play this year. Turns out, she won’t even be able to practice during the season this year. That’s a bummer.
I’ve had a few combined zoom meeting with the players in recent weeks. In one of them I brought one of my former Exeter players in to talk about how the students ran things there. In another I had them watch this video from Brene Brown on trust, with a follow-up discussion.
This week I met in person with the women’s team for kind of a general update. We actually did it in the gym, which is the first time they’ve been in there this school year. I’m expecting to meet in-person with the men’s team for the first time on Friday.
A major focus these last couple weeks is academic oversight. Medaille has the most active progress reporting system I’ve ever seen at a college. That’s great in terms of being able to keep tabs on the athletes, but it also introduces a fair bit of follow-up work.
Recruiting
We have a number of prospects who’ve applied, some of whom have also already been accepted (Medaille does rolling decisions). No commitments as yet, however. One thing that is slowing the process down is the challenge of visits. Most of the country is on New York’s quarantine list. Between that and girls volleyball being in season in many places, it’s not a great environment for visits to happen. We do have a couple lined up in the next week or so on the men’s side, but that’s it at the moment.
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