This is an entry in my volleyball coaching log for the 2021-22 season for the Medaille College men.

Non-Traditional Season

As I mentioned in the last entry, we started our non-traditional segment (aka off-season training) toward the end of October. Last week we completed that segment with 3 practices and a 4-team tournament on Saturday.

The tournament featured three teams we’ll play a total of five matches against in the regular season. Because of the guys not taking part in the off-season with us, I had to use one of two DS’s at OH for the event. Actually, I used both of them there on something of a rotation. In fact, in a couple of sets I used both to give a guy with a sore ankle a break. I even let our libero play OH in the last set we played. It didn’t make much of a difference. Two of the teams were quite poor, featuring a lot of guys you could tell don’t have much experience. The other was decent, giving us the only real match of the event.

Recruiting

Things have been pretty active on this front. We had four campus visits in the last two weeks. One of those guys has already verbally committed. We’re just waiting on his tuition deposit for it to become official. An earlier visit told me recently for him it’s down to us and one other school. Lots of work still to be done there, but we’re definitely ahead of where we were last year at this time.

What’s ahead

The volleyball is done for the term now. After this week there is one more until classes end, then another for final exams. The guys will report back to start preseason on January 4th.

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John Forman
John Forman

John is currently the Talent Strategy Manager (oversees the national teams) and Indoor Performance Director for Volleyball England, as well as Global Director for Volleyball for Nation Academy. His volleyball coaching experience includes all three NCAA divisions, plus Junior College, in the US; university and club teams in the UK; professional coaching in Sweden; and both coaching and club management at the Juniors level. He's also been a visiting coach at national team, professional club, and juniors programs in several countries. Learn more on his bio page.

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