Dear Coach...They Deserve Better!

Dear Coach. Yes, you, the assistant Coach in Enumclaw, Washington. The one who got a call from the head coach less than an hour before the start of practice last week that he couldn’t come that night and you to run practice. You, the coach that was running the last practice for this exceptional 17’s team before it headed to Las Vegas for Nationals three days later. The Coach that decided the best idea for practice that night was for this 17’s team to run 16 sets of lines. SIXTEEN sets of lines. Obviously, running these lines would put these 17-year-olds in penultimate shape for the tournament ahead. Now, after these 16 sets of lines, this team would run anaerobic circles around their opponents.

Seemingly, it never occurred to this coach that maybe playing was a better option than running. It would be a bit of a surprise if this group of 17’s didn’t already know how to run and sprint. Having played volleyball for years, it’s hard to imagine that this team didn’t possess the skills to sprint after a ball, transition quickly off the net or approach for an attack. Obviously, this coach knows his players better than I, but his default was in fact, running. Coach, your athletes deserve so much better from you.

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/to-the-coach-who-ruined-the-game-for-me

Dear Coach, the one who coaches a co-op team from Lidgerwood and Wyndmere athletes in North Dakota. The one who has several exceptional athletes: a 5-10 setter with butter for hands, a strong quick middle, a legit outside hitter and a feisty libero who vacuums the back court. Yes, Coach, you! The one who does the same thing at practice every day: twenty minutes of passing on their knees, serve receive drills, hitting lines and finishes- if there is time left- with some 6 v 6.

Coach, we understand that you are also teaching history and have a family of your own. But accepting the job of a high school volleyball coach and the stipend that comes with it also requires you to put some thought into the athletes you are coaching. It requires you to learn about the practices of coaching and teaching, to not grab your drills from a book on coaching volleyball from the 1980’s. It should require you to listen to your athletes, let them have a voice in practice. Let them help you. Some play for club coaches and have other ideas for training. Being a good coach, the one who isn’t getting beat by smaller, less athletic programs who train for the game they will play, means you have to sometimes put your ego aside and understand that you don’t know what you don’t know. Your athletes deserve better!

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/to-the-coach-that-killed-my-passion

Dear Coach, the one in Hettinger, North Dakota. The coach that has been gifted one of the best setters in the state, who can do everything on the court including being a great leader and teammate but is sentenced to the coach that does the absolute least amount she can throughout the year. The coach who offers no extra playing opportunities, who gives little if any feedback and just finds a drill online, runs it and moves to the next with no thought or inspiration put into it. The coach that seems to her players to just be collecting a paycheck and skating through the lives of her athletes untouched by them or her circumstances. Dear Coach, your amazing setter and her teammates deserve so much more from you.

Volleyball can be a sport of passion, of excitement. It can light the night sky and give goosebumps to the dead. The energy, the twitterpation, the climb from the depths of average to the thin mountainous Everest air of extreme accomplishment can be had in just one play, one set, one match…one season.

Or it can be mundane, passionless and energy draining. It can be lowly and ordinary, vapid and a wasteland of athleticism.

To these coaches and the ones that fall into these categories, your athletes deserve so much more.