Appleton Excel Season Wrap Party. − 6 May, 2007
I wrote about getting the chance to coach youth volleyball here. It turns out that I was able to coach the Appleton Excel 15-1 team. The team consisted of mostly freshman girls and it was a lot of fun. We had 7 tournaments all over Wisconsin and we ended up 19-15 in games and we placed second in the Appleton Excel hosted Winter Challenge tournament.
I miss coaching so much and I never realized how coaching kids can have such an impact on them.
On this day, we had our season wrap party. We played volleyball with the parents and the kids and it was a non-scoring jungle ball fest, but it was fun. Afterwards, the coaches gave keepsakes to the players including a notebook with things we wrote about the season and each player.
What I didn't realize is that the girls did the same thing.
Each coach got a scrapbook with each team member saying something special to that coach. Mine was full of things that I never thought of. One thing I never realized is that sometimes I can say something that I would expect to be over a player's head and maybe after I say it, they kind of blow it off. Well, I had one player who I just nonchalantly told how to use the block to their advantage and didn't expect them to remember it at all and it turned out that that was the most important thing she learned throughout the whole season. I was proud of that because a lot of 15 year old girls just don't understand that there are about 30 different ways to attack the volleyball when it's set to you. She understood that I was trying to open up the other 29 ways to her. I didn't spend a lot of time on it. I just mentioned some possibilities and she retained it like we had practiced it 50 times.
I'll never forget this group of girls, just like I'll never forget anyone I ever coached, but these girls were the first to give me something from themselves, something I never got from grown players. Adults tend to say thanks, buy you a beer, and move on.
I'm looking forward to coaching boys high school volleyball in the fall and I can't wait to get started.
I miss coaching so much and I never realized how coaching kids can have such an impact on them.
On this day, we had our season wrap party. We played volleyball with the parents and the kids and it was a non-scoring jungle ball fest, but it was fun. Afterwards, the coaches gave keepsakes to the players including a notebook with things we wrote about the season and each player.
What I didn't realize is that the girls did the same thing.
Each coach got a scrapbook with each team member saying something special to that coach. Mine was full of things that I never thought of. One thing I never realized is that sometimes I can say something that I would expect to be over a player's head and maybe after I say it, they kind of blow it off. Well, I had one player who I just nonchalantly told how to use the block to their advantage and didn't expect them to remember it at all and it turned out that that was the most important thing she learned throughout the whole season. I was proud of that because a lot of 15 year old girls just don't understand that there are about 30 different ways to attack the volleyball when it's set to you. She understood that I was trying to open up the other 29 ways to her. I didn't spend a lot of time on it. I just mentioned some possibilities and she retained it like we had practiced it 50 times.
I'll never forget this group of girls, just like I'll never forget anyone I ever coached, but these girls were the first to give me something from themselves, something I never got from grown players. Adults tend to say thanks, buy you a beer, and move on.
I'm looking forward to coaching boys high school volleyball in the fall and I can't wait to get started.
