Masters in Coaching Podcast- Episode XLIII

Tim Cates talks with long time girls volleyball coach Bret Almazan-Cezar about his career in coaching and now his new job working with the Pac-12 Conference. Bret won 11 state CIF titles and was a 4x National Coach of the Year. Bret also talks about his experience graduating from the Masters in Coaching and Athletics Administration Program.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Nearly three decades as a girls volleyballcoach and a teacher, National Coach of
the Year, multiple times National championships, multiple times CIF Championships, too many
to count, and now he's gota new job helping the PAC twelve and
their officials he has. Brett Amazonsays, are and he's our guest on

(00:20):
episode forty three of the Masters inCoaching podcast. Let's go Well, welcome
into episode forty three of the Mastersin Coaching podcasts here on iHeartRadio YouTube wherever
you may be listening or watching thisepisode of the Masters in Coaching podcast me

(00:41):
thank you for that. Let's getright into it. I'm so excited to
talk to our guests this week.Three decades as an educator and coach,
most recently at Grant Bay High Schoolin Sacramento, seven years in Lincoln High
School in Stockton, twenty years atArt Bishop Middy in San Jose, combined
eleven state titles, almost nine hundredwins, four times high school volleyball and
National Coach of the Year. Oneof the most successful club volleyball coaches in

(01:03):
the country. Brett almost On says, our joys is now Brett, welcome
to the podcast. How you doing, coach? I'm doing good. Looking
forward to seeing what this is allabout and see if we can share some
knowledge and share some of my experienceand make smether coach is better. Absolutely,
we'll get into that and what you'redoing now, But I guess let's
start off right there. You spenda year at Grant Bay High School,

(01:26):
but no longer the volleyball coach there? What are you doing now? Still
working as soon as you forced volleyballclub coaching coaches, mostly assisting a couple
of teams and making people better.And then I got the opportutunity to do
some referee observations in the PAC twelve. I thought that might be a fun

(01:46):
thing to do this year. That'sawesome. All right, we're gonna go
back. This is kind of belike your this is your life coach.
We mentioned all the accolades and thenational championships, the CIF championships, three
decades as an educator, the classroomand on the volleyball court. How did
you get into coaching? What?What is it that drew you to volleyball

(02:06):
and get to where you're at.I enjoyed watching the game as an undergrad
at the University of Pacific with coachLess Scavenge and coach Dunning's teams, and
I started dating a lady who happenedto play college volleyball and coached at Club
Stockton Volleyball, and Donning the upcoach was coaching coaches. They're running a

(02:29):
team, and I watched him communicate. At the time, I was a
mortgage broker selling money, and Ithought, the way this guy communicates in
such socratic ways, I could makemore money if I learned how to do
it this way. And so Ijust hung out there and then he says,
hey, I need you to takea team, and it was fourteen
threes, and somehow I fell inlove with it and fell out of love

(02:54):
with the mortgage companies of the ninetiesand the rest this history. You mentioned
the way he communicated with the athletes. Talk a little bit about that.
What exactly was that communication that thatkind of opened your eyes and ears to
changing and becoming a coach. CoachDunning as a math teacher as well,

(03:16):
really is a guru of Socratic method, you know, asking questions leading to
better understanding of what they're doing.You'll hear him say things like, well,
why did you do it that way? Does that work for you?
How can you do it better?Sometimes you get to the point of you

(03:40):
got to do it this way right. But the understanding that I listened to
him create was just eye opening forme. You know, don't tell people
things, empower them and ask themto do it. They do it.
And at first you thought, maybeI'll implement that into the mortgage business.

(04:00):
But then coaching and volleyball. Youdidn't have a playing background, but you
have a love of sport. Youwatched it. What then helped you learn
more about the sport and get comfortableand just continue to grow as a coach
coaching volleyball. I think I'm verytype of personality that when I decided to
do something, I'm gonna go prettygot home and I had the opportunity to

(04:23):
be mentored by people like Dunning.I was mentored by my now wife.
I got to learn and watch howpeople did it, you know, and
I went other places as a volleyballcoach and go watch football practice. Well
how do you do this? Ivague vaguely, I explicitly recall learning or

(04:46):
creating my offense at a basketball gamewith a football coach. Well, how
do you do that. You know, can we run the veer and volleyball?
Well, yeah we can. Andit became very unique to us,
very very successf What was it likewhen you got that first head coaching job
at a high school level at LincolnHigh School in Stockton. You're there seven
years before you went on to ArchbishopMitty. But that that first high school

(05:11):
job was it eye opening? Wasn'tlike I got my own program. I
got what I'm gonna do, howI'm gonna do it. Let's go.
Oh. I was a Brown newteacher at that point. I left the
mortgage company and I was a Brownnew teacher, and I figured it was
a better way to get to atenure track. There. I can coach
your team. Do you want meto do a JV I know he wants

(05:31):
to do be the head volleyball coach, and thankfully Jim Ruby alas back then,
said let's go do it. Andit was different. I knew nothing.
I was lucky to surround myself withpeople that knew more than me.
I was lucky at Lincoln to bearound the culture that wanted to be successful.

(05:57):
Just pure luck, you know.And I thought, in seven years
at Lincoln we'd be playing for theNorthern California Championship, going to state and
playing eight bril Ross two times.I never expected to get there, you
know, and it was definitely oneof those things I just want to be
better than when we worry. Yesday, let's go plus one. It's funny

(06:20):
you're talking about your I'm kind ofabsorbing from football coaches and basketball coaches and
even going back to the communication whenyou when you first, you know,
got into coaching and learning about howto communicate with the players and asking them
questions and being receptive to what theysay. How important is that for you

(06:40):
as far as that communication between youand your players, and especially when you
started to those thirty years, howimportant was that relationship with your players in
the communication? I think ultimately themost sacred part of coaching is the teaching
and the best way to teach anybodyto make sure that you have a relationship

(07:01):
of some sort, that you havea culture, you have a place of
shared responsibilities and respect. And that'swhat I've always tried to create. I
mean, it's been an evolution,yeah, and Concordia definitely helped me understand

(07:21):
that more. But that's where I'vealways been. You know, I heard
Pete Carroll before Pete Carroll became PeteCarroll because he's a urop grad and he
was talking about this sacredness of theteaching and the relationships. It's like,
okay, how do we do this? I saw you on a podcast in
Research and get ready to talk toyou, and you were asked about the

(07:43):
pillars of culture and Archbishop Middy.And I loved your answer because it's it's
not like you came in and like, all right, here's my foundation,
here's my pyramidic success if you will, here's here's how the program we're going
to do it. It kind ofmorphed and evolved over time. And you
started as you mentioned, and itstarted with you know, competing, and
then from there the success and youyou just kept adding on and adding on

(08:07):
to your pillars and that's how yougrew that culture at Archbishommittee. Right,
don't ask me what's our identity?And I really didn't. I have no
idea what our identity was. Igo, I remember the beginning, the
identity was we were gonna wear tallblack socks. We're gonna are black.
Informs would come in. Everybody's gonnabeing black, and we were just going

(08:28):
to try to have intimidate and thatwas successful for us for a few years,
and then I realized it wasn't sustainable. You know, Okay, wedders
don't win anymore. That's gonna changethe Las Vegas writers. And it's like,

(08:50):
so, how are we going tochange this? How do we create
an evolving environment where the kids haveinput, where staff has the input,
and we still maintain the culture ofsuccess. And so yeah, we changed
a lot, and I think aswe grew older and more experienced, it

(09:13):
did get more organic. The kidsright, the prayers, the kids right,
the commitments, and we just gotthem, you know, we socratically
got them. How did you maintainthat success? Especially an arts bitch,
AMMITTI, because because that's that's whereafter seven years you go there and you

(09:35):
win national championships, your runoff titlesin a row. How do you how
do you sustain that? Coach?How do you how do you year after
year with the turnover? Is it? I mean at a high school level,
so it's not necessarily recruiting, butkids girls come to you, they
see your program, they want towin, they see the success. There
is that part of it. Justyou know, the success breeds kids coming

(09:56):
to you, and it just keepsthat momentum going. Tess definitely breed success.
You know. We always kind oftucking Chief said, we're creating the
secret Society, and everybody wants tobe a part of it. You know,
how do we create that that imagewhere people want to be a part
of it? You know, andit gets difficult because then you'll have some

(10:22):
classes in that situation where hey,I'm not going to go to mini because
I'll never get to play. Soyou've got to set up an environment where
kids want to belong and figure outthe mystique you want to create a family
of how they want to be andhow they want to portray it, and

(10:43):
then the whole attitude of and wejust one state when we're gonna do next
year. We're going to figure outhow to be better, you know,
somehow be better And it's not necessarilymore wins or more losses, But how
do we make better kids? Howdo we make a better ironment? How
do we teach them more about life? And if we can teach them to

(11:05):
take care of their lives, maybethey can take care of the ball.
For that's awesome. Coach. Whoare some of the people in your life.
You mentioned a few of them already, and they got you into coaching,
got you away from the private sectorand into teaching. But along the
way, who are some of thosecoaches, those mentors that you've that you've

(11:26):
stoked up on because it's it's acommon theme. Coach. We we've done
forty two episodes of the Masters andCoaching podcasts, people who have coached,
their athletic directors, they're administrators,they're athletic trainers, and everybody says the
same thing. I think it's it'spart of being successful is they're not afraid
to learn from more, whether it'sgoing to Concordia in the Masters program,
talking to other coaches. You talkedabout it, football coaches, basketball coaches,

(11:50):
just being a sponge and learning andcontinuing and wanting to learn. I
mean, somehow you might be consideredsuccessful, but to be more successful,
you have to have the humility toknow that there's something else to learn out
there. You know, whether it'sone of my best buddies as a Green
Beret, how does being a GreenBeret work? You know, how do

(12:13):
these people do the impossible? Imean, my background is in marching band,
and in marching band a drum cord. You're trying to be perfect?
Well, how do you teach perfectionknowing that it's not going to be perfect?
So I'm constantly looking at everybody thatI can learn from. You know,

(12:35):
Dunning's close and I coached his daughtersand so I got to learn.
But then I sit there and Igo watch I watch what's the name that
cheer? On Netflix? I'm like, Okay, these people compete harder than
us. How do we become partof that? You know? I watch
you know, just about anything.It's like, how do you be awesome?

(13:01):
You know what was the name ofthat that movie about Alex Hanold,
Free Free whatever, where he climbswhere you climbs l cap. It's like,
okay, this guy has to beso perfect because he isn't perfect,
He's gonna freaking die. Yeah,you know, how do we get that
attitude where you just got to scorethe next point? So I mean,

(13:24):
for any coach out there, don'tjust look amongst your peers or your mentors
in your sport, but look atmentors for life. I love it.
I love it. Coach. Let'stalk some volleyball and in particular the sport
women's volleyball, girls volleyball. You'vebeen doing this for three decades, so

(13:45):
you've seen the sport change. Iassume you've seen the sport grow certainly at
all levels, from the club levelwhich is out of control, to high
school level, to the college level, to playing overseas the Olympics as well.
What have you seen in the sportover the last thirty years. How
much has it grown? I guessit's grown immensely. I think the monetorization

(14:07):
is good and bad, but Ithink that's everything as it evolves. It
has to be sustainable that there's goingto be monetization. I think tactics have
changed, evolved. I think coachingsystems have changed and evolved. But then

(14:28):
when it all comes back down toit, it comes back to kids having
to compete and kids having the skillset. You know, if you can't
serve and you can't pass, you, I don't care what system you're running,
you're not going to be successful.But as clubs have grown bigger and
clubs have become more privatized, justlike you know, travel baseball or travel

(14:50):
softball or all those, I thinkkids are having the opportunity to be coached
year round and learn more. Youknow. When I first started, clubs
were created to make high schools better. You know, It's like I can
have my team year round. AndI think it's evolved that some high schools
like an Archbishop Mini, kids goto so they can be better in club

(15:13):
and I think it's more cyclical thatway that kids want to play, you
around, kids want to be coached. I wish we had a sport,
you know, like baseball, whereyou could go out and play over the
line, you know, just forfun, I go play catch. And

(15:37):
that's the struggle I have with theevolution of our sport, is kids want
to be coached. It's like no, sometimes you just gotta go want to
play absolutely, and that's tough todo with all. You see it more
in beach you knows, as beachcourts sprout up in the Gold Country of
California. You see that. ButI think that's the evolution is the economics

(16:04):
makes better coaching available. But stillcan we go back and just you know,
at the ball around play cats.With that being said, I'm curious
your thoughts on in current day withrecruiting and high school kids trying to get
to that next level. And we'lljust use volleyball as an example. High

(16:26):
school my kids go to here,there's five girls going to play D one
volleyball next year, but I'll playclub and high school is kind of one
A one B with club. Isthat sort of the state it's happening in
baseball? Certainly it's happening to sevenon seven now in football and the youth

(16:47):
basketball leagues that are have aau forbasketball. Is that sort of the same
thing with volleyball where there's more Isthere more of an emphasis on club and
helping get recruiting there than there ison the high school team? For sure.
I mean we were unique that wecould use both. But now just
think of yourself as a college recruiter. I can go to our gym,

(17:08):
a tournament. In our gym,we have twenty four courts, we have
four times teams on each court.I can spend one day there and find
that nugget, you know, withwith high school, you've got to go
in with a lot more insight,you know, like the football guys do.
Yeah, you know, with volleyball, you can find that diamond in

(17:29):
the rough. On CORP seventy fourat Junior Nationals whose team is terrible,
but she happens to be six footseven, okay, six foot two jump
out of the gym and you knowit's a nice to our mother during timeouts.
You should find that. So sowhy spend the money to go find
little high schools where you can goto one big tournament. That's a great

(17:53):
point. That's a great point.Coach. You mentioned you're getting you're done
at Granted Bay and you're getting intohelp in the PAC twelve and continue with
the clubs. What what do youis that something you're excited about? That
a new challenge, especially with thePAC twelve and helping them and being a
part of that. It's it's differentfor you, oh one hundred percent.
I'm like, I'm not certified.I don't know anything matter. It's like

(18:17):
you just observe. And I thought, Okay, PAC twelve, that's easy
because those guys are good. Istop, buddy, applause check check check
check. But I thought, asyou see referees in different levels, I
thought it would be unique in myeducation to see how the best of the
best are, you know, Andwhen their director called me and I'm like,

(18:41):
first of all, number one.Ye're like, I'm fanbowing on you.
So I think I'm going if youthink I can do this, then
I'll go ahead and do it,and I can learn more about refereeing,
and then when you go back tothe club level, maybe I can say,
hey, you know, just youknow a little flex i rate referees

(19:03):
for the PAC twelve and I'm watchingwhat you do. I like what you're
doing. Have you thought about doingit this way? That's great? That's
great. Coach Concord, you mentionedConcord University. You're buying the masters program
in coaching. You went through it? How first off, why, I
mean, as successful as you arecoach and on and off the court,

(19:27):
why did you need to go pursueyour masters? Why did you feel at
that time you wanted to go getthat mattress in coaching when I wasn't LinkedIn.
I left coaching for six months becauseI wanted in a post grad and
I wasn't sure what it was goingto be yet, you know, was
it going to be a business,was it going to be a psychology using

(19:48):
education? And then I got theopportunity at MIDDI, and I thought I
can get to the Bay and there'sa lot more opportunities for education, but
MIDI sort of got in the way. We're kind of doing that, but
then to stand with a ten yeartrack that like, do you want to
do something with the credential, youknow, further your credential, or do
you want to get a post grad? And a friend of mine had done

(20:11):
the MCA, and I'm like,I'm gonna get a postgrad. This looks
like something I'd like to do.Sure, And I figured, you know,
I can apply this, I canlearn from this, might be eating
a little networking things like that,and so I went for it. And
I'm so grateful I did. Yourexperience was mostly online and doing it that

(20:37):
way, but taking the different coursesagain, this is it's it's almost like
this is your mo This is great, just kind of absorbing from different people
and this is just another example gettingthat masters but also absorbing and learning from
others and may be able to teachothers as well in that communication virtually in
the classroom. Is that something youexperienced? Oh one? I mean I
thought it's like when I did whatwas that twenty fourteen, we'd already won

(21:04):
that account seven state championships, youknow, and we were back to back
already. And then I went throughthe program and I was able to codify,
you know, what we did,and then add more spices to the
entire sip. And then when itcame to the culminating exercises, like what

(21:29):
I'm going to write about it?And so I have it right here.
I wrote, building the most successfulhigh school volleyball program imaginable. And I
get emotional about it, and it'slike we were already the best. How
do we make this better? Inbeing able to write about it, it's
like, Wow, this is good, we do this, Oh, we

(21:51):
can do this better, and wecan end We added on and we ended
up winning six in a row,you know, and I think the program
helped it a lot. You know, all the aspects I had in my
life, hanging out with a greenBret, watching marching bands, you know,
looking at the nuts and bolts ofcoaching, you know, the technology
class. Yeah, technology, that'sthat's right, assistance too, But taking

(22:19):
those classes and identifying your philosophies andidentifying, you know, how to make
things better. I thought it wasgreat for that as awesome. Well,
Bretti, thank you so much fortalking about yourself your programs, I mean
the numbers speak for itself, thewins, the championships, the Coach of

(22:41):
the Year awards, arguably the mostsuccessful girls volleyball coach in the state of
California and the country as well.Thank you for talking about your background,
your story, your coaching style,and your experience at Concording University, your
Yes Masters and coaching Athletics administration program. I know I enjoy it. I
know our listeners and viewers enjoyed itas well. So thank you so much

(23:03):
and good luck with the new venture. As he helped the Pack twelve,
we appreciate that it could be fine, it could be interesting, it could
be one we'll see. Thank youso much for doing this. Thank you
well, there he goes. BrentAmazon, says, are the former head
coach at Grand Bay High School,was there a year, spent twenty seven

(23:27):
years at Lincoln High School and thenat Archbishop Middy, where he won national
championships, CIF titles, four timeNational Volleyball Coach of the Year. We
appreciate him coming on the podcast sharinga little bit about his coaching secrets.
What a story, what a guy, and no doubt is going to help
this PAC twelve conference. In volleyballout with the officials and continues to coach

(23:49):
at the club level there in Sacramento. Don't forget about the Masters in Coaching
and Athletics Administration program and the BigCalifornia Coaches Conference that's coming up on June
twenty seven. You can find outmore and Cui dot Eedu slash Coaching learn
from some of the most innovative expertsin their field. There are nine sports
specific courses plus strength and speed andconditioning sessions. You don't want to miss

(24:12):
it Cui dot Eedu slash Coaching.You can also find all the information about
the Masters in Coaching Athletics Administration Programif you're interested and when the next startup
date is, or just find outmore about it if you want to further
that coaching or education career. Thanksto Coach. Thanks to you for listening
and watching. Episode forty three ofthe Masters in Coaching podcast is in the

(24:34):
books. Until next time, TimKate saying so long everybody, thanks for listening.