This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for the 2021-22 season for the Medaille College men.
The guys have started the non-traditional season (a.k.a. off-season training). As I mentioned in my last update, that’s the 16 days we’re allowed to have official work-outs, practices, etc.
Training
Because we’re at the point of year where women’s volleyball and basketball overlap, plus other activities are going on in our secondary practice space, we’ve only done a handful of sessions so far. Two have been on-court. Two involved weight training stuff. Now that the women are done (see their coaching log), things open up a bit. A big part of that is my own availability since I can’t work with the guys if I’m on the road. The next three are fairly busy with practices. We end the non-traditional segment on November 20th with a 4-team tournament.
Recruiting
We had a couple of guys visit campus in October. We have more this month. A number of guys have applied. No commitments just yet, but I know for at least one guy we’re top of his list. I expect to see some movement in that area this month. Still a lot of work to do there, though.
Scheduling
Had to do some work on our season schedule because it turns out we weren’t actually in a tournament I thought we were in. Fortunately, some others had openings. We ended up replacing the 2-day tournament with a single match on Friday at one place, then a tri-match on Saturday at a different place. You can see the final schedule here.
We also have an alumni match in the works. That should be interesting.
Hall of Fame
Speaking of alumni, the latest Medaille Athletics Hall of Fame induction took place a little over a week ago. It was actually two classes since covid prevented the ceremony last year. I bring this up because one of the inductees was the first men’s volleyball player to go in. He was a member of the Medaille team that reached the national championship match back in 2004 when the Division III title was the Molten Championship (NCAA didn’t take it over until 2012). Personally, I think that whole 2004 team needs induction. Anyway, at the event I finally met the former Medaille coach. He essentially left Medaille after 2019-20 to coach his own kids.
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