She Doesn’t Look Like a Volleyball Player

This blog post’s name is responsible for the title of my secondbook.

Originally, “She Doesn’t Look like a Volleyball Player” was the first volleyball-related article I wrote published (in print form) for a large audience.  It was based off a blog post (on my other blog which Google/blogspot no longer lets me have access to…sigh) and revised so that it came out here:

AVCA Article

I’ve added some notes down below that bring it up to date since it was actually written more than five(!) years ago.  Thoughts are welcome.  And if you like reading this–buy the book, hit “FOLLOW” on the blog here (the book is UNDER $5…a frickin’ bargain)

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I’m going to scream, I think. This spring, I heard the phrase “She doesn’t look like a volleyball player,” a total of five times in describing players, and in one case, it was followed by me clenching my jaw when the coach followed up with, “Wow, she can actually play!”

This hasn’t changed.  I still hear the comment regularly, and there have been a few times when I’ve used the line to keep a 4-yr coach’s attention, making sure to remind the coach–watch how she plays, what she does.  If I can’t kill the phrase off, I might as well try and use it to the athletes’ advantage.

Doesn’t look like a player…that’s great, but if I look through the rules (yeah, like a coach would ever read the rule book…), I don’t think I’ll find anything that gives my team bonus points or victories for ‘looking’ like volleyball players. Crikeys–what exactly does a volleyball player look like? Is it the 6-4 stringbean? The 6-1 stocky kid? How about the 5-8 girl who’s built ‘big’, or the 5-4 girl who is a three-sport star? Which is it?

Some of the best volleyball players I have coached don’t ‘look’ like volleyball players. Heck, some of the best results I’ve had as a coach have come from thinking outside the box [part of the reason for the current blog’s name]–and really, that’s the most important thing of my rant…don’t stereotype! Not in sports, not in life.  Back in ’98, the 8th grade coach at my former employer, the Satan’s School for Boys and Girls, only played one kid at setter: “Jim, she’ll be a star. She’ll start for you. She’s great.” Maybe, maybe not…of course, the girl’s decision to play tennis rather than play volleyball in high school made the assessment moot. Her decision meant there was no JV setter.  None of the remaining kids “looked” like a setter either (I was young, forgive me).

The original blog, but not the AVCA article, mentions Satan’s School. I put it back in.  I’m frustrated still by that coach over twenty years later, as well as the coaches who followed me.  They started playing only the front six or seven kids and were shocked when the numbers of girls participating dropped.  In my last year at Satan’s School, I had 32 girls out for high school volleyball and 29 for junior high.[In 2015]they had 11 in the high school program and only 12 in the entire junior high program. 

And that’s a big frustration going beyond this article.  Coaches complain about declining participation, especially at younger ages–but then those same coaches don’t ever let those kids actually play.  Why would a rational 14-yr old go out for an activity, put in 10-15 hours per week, and get no reward for it–other than watching the same 6-7 kids play all the time?  Answer–>they don’t go out.  Duh.  [Now add in the high cost of club or high school coaches affiliated with a club–those drive kids away as well…and it isn’t just volleyball.  Other sports are equally as guilty.]

Out of nowhere, a kid who’d been on the bench as a backup outside hitter in 8th grade volunteered to set and asked me not to laugh because she hadn’t ever been permitted to try before. She didn’t look like much, but the kid had the guts to volunteer. Ok, fine–the job was hers. –>By the end of the season, she was dressing varsity.  She started three years on the varsity, went 24-6, 34-3, 30-6, she wound up in the state record books, and earned a scholarship to play in college. Not bad for a kid who didn’t “look” like she could play! Funny thing is, by her sophomore year, she sure looked able to play.  I was almost an idiot.

Since I wrote this, that setter invited me to talk with her fifth grade classes about education, working hard, and how sports help when you are an adult.  The funny thing is–Katie’s the best example of that I know.  She got into teaching so she could make a difference–I’d like to think that my “decision” to have her set and give her a chance helped with that (even though I know its more because her mom is a teacher as well…)

Here at Lincoln Land, my first year I inherited a player who was a DS for the previous coach…’too small’ to play outside hitter. When I was hired, I asked what position she playedand she “I’m a DS, I don’t get to play front row”. I’d learned my lesson by then (I wasn’t an old dog yet, I still learned new tricks)–I told her if she was one of the two most effective outside hitters, she’d play OH.

Her response, “I’m too short.”

Mine: “I’ll be the judge of that.”

To her credit, she busted her butt and was absolutely BY FAR the best outside hitter her sophomore year. 5’3 and she wound up all-conference and all-region.  Height does not equal ability!

It happens in evaluating coaches, too. My current[remember, this was written in 2011 originally] assistant played for me in 06 and 07…the first person I signed. No experience, not ‘mature’ (read: “She’s too young”…bah…), she’s still in grad school…all sorts of justifications for why I shouldn’t hire her and take someone else instead. I looked past those. She’s responsible, she plans out her homework, and from her days as a player, she listened, constantly searched for ways to improve…LOOK PAST THE OBVIOUS…

So here she is now, one year in, handling recruiting (and we have good recruits coming in), coaching a 16s travel club team, managing our non-traveling league of 12 teams–120 kids! She supervises their tournaments, practices, concessions…and oh yeah, she still has found time to revise and improve our strength and conditioning program.

UPDATE:

Kelly’s no longer my assistant.  She got a full-time government job and is the mother of two, soon to be three, but her recruiting efforts led to LLCC’s first Nationals appearance in 2012, so it worked out well.  She was succeeded by Laura, another alumni of the program who also doesn’t strike you immediately as the coach-type (oh, how little you get from appearances, my friends!).  Laura’s did the same great work, but we didn’t make it to Nationals while she was here.  We made it right after she left–her recruits led us there, the ones who didn’t totally look like volleyball players.  Laura had it a lot worse actually.  In ’13, with NO experience, she had to completely take over for a month because I suffered a heart incident,  so 28 days into her coaching career and BOOM–totally in charge….they went undefeated during that month, not bad for someone who didn’t look like a VB player or coach!

Other examples?  We had an outside hitter named Anna Becker who became a top-flight libero by looking deeper into her ability and personality (same thing with Emily Orrick who played for us in 2011-12–great hitter, but wound up the best libero in NJCAA history (that’s said without hyperbole). Does a player’s reputation blind us as coaches to changes which may be better for both the athlete and the team? How do we avoid that dreaded evaluation: She doesn’t look like a hitter / blocker / setter / passer / volleyball player?

Orrick left LLCC as the program’s first two-time NJCAA all-American.  She wound up at Illinois State where she was all-Missouri Valley twice, MVC Libero of the Year twice, and AVCA all-American as a senior.  Not bad for a two-year college kid, huh?  And to think–no one offered her a scholarship coming out of high school other than community colleges.  That ought to be enough of a lesson right there–first, there’s some high-level volleyball going on at the two-year college level; second, this ‘doesn’t look like a player’ stuff matters…a completely overlooked kid went on to be all-American three times in her career!

After Orrick, the most recent example was from our team the past couple years, a kid named Kiersten Anderson.  Out of high school, she wanted to play D-1, but was told “If only you were 1/2″ taller,” “If only you touched 1″ taller” and so on.  The kid was a 5’11 lefty setter/hitter who touched 9’11.  Is there really a difference between that and 6′ touching 10′ (nope).  Our win.  She wound up two-time all-American, two-time all-National Tournament and in the end, still faced with that bias of being a half-inch too short, wound up heading over to Columbia College where she was a two-time all-American, graduated early, and is now playing beach volleyball for the University of Tampa.  Think she could’ve played D-1?  …good thing for me, Columbia, and Tampa that she didn’t “look” like a D-1 volleyballer.