September 12, 2025 âą 53 mins
đ Heather Pavlik: Building a Dynasty with Toughness and Compassion
What does it take to build not just a winning team, but a dynasty? Juniata College Head Womenâs Volleyball Coach Heather Pavlik has done exactly thatâleading her program to three straight NCAA Division III National Championships, including back-to-back undefeated seasons. Along the way, sheâs replaced key players, sustained the highest level of performance, and proven why sheâs an 8-time Landmark Conference Coach of the Year and the 2024 AVCA National Coach of the Year.
In this episode of Significant Coaching, Heather shares the balance that defines her leadership: toughness that drives excellence on the court, paired with compassion that shapes her players as people off the court. From teaching her athletes to focus only on the voices that matter, to creating a standard of accountability and love, Heather Pavlik epitomizes what it means to be a significant leader.
Subscribe, favorite, and share this episodeâitâs the best way to support the growth of this podcast. And donât forget to visit CoachMattRogers.com for my book Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes and the brand-new Recruitâs Journal series, including the new Soccer edition, to help athletes and families navigate their recruiting journey with confidence and clarity.
Learn more and connect with Matt Rogers here: https://linktr.ee/coachmattrogers
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We've talked a lot recentlyabout the idea that the only
opinions that matter are thepeople standing in the gym
looking each other in the eye,and that's the way it has to be
all the time.
But yes, your parents are gonnahave ideas about what we're
doing and how we're doing it.
People around campus will haveideas about, expectations of
what we should do and how weshould do it.
But in the end, the only, onlypeople that matter is standing
(00:22):
in the gym every single day.
Welcome back to The SignificantCoaching Podcast.
I'm your host Matt Rogers.
Every year across every sport anNCAA champion is crowned.
(00:43):
That alone is rarefied air, butwinning back-to-back
championships.
That's almost unheard of.
And then there's Juta CollegeWomen's Volleyball under the
leadership of Head Coach HeatherPavlik, our guest today.
The Eagles haven't just won backto back championships.
They've won three straight andin the process they've gone a
(01:06):
combined 70 and oh.
Over the past two seasons, evenmore remarkable, they've done it
while graduating three keyplayers after each of those
championship runs.
That doesn't happen by accident.
That's a testament to theculture.
Heather has built the program'sstandard of excellence and her
ability to teach and lead at thehighest level.
(01:28):
Coach Pavlik has been recognizedeight times as the Landmark
Conference Coach of the year,and in 2024 she was named the
American Volleyball CoachesAssociation National Coach of
the Year.
Few leaders in any sport havematched her ability to sustain
dominance while continuing togrow the People Insider Program.
(01:48):
Today you'll hear her talk aboutteaching her players that the
only opinions that matter arefrom those who show up every day
and put in the work on theircourt.
It's a lesson rooted in bothtoughness and love, the same
combination that has made her achampionship coach and a
transformational leader.
Before we dive in, let me remindyou.
(02:09):
If this podcast is bringing youvalue, hit that subscribe
button, click favorite, share itwith your teams, share it with
your families, and even drop ina comment.
That's how we continue to growthis coaching, recruiting, and
learning community.
And don't forget, you can findmy book Significant Recruiting,
the Playbook for prospectivecollege athletes, along with the
(02:30):
recruits journal series,baseball, basketball, softball,
volleyball, and nowsoccer@coachmattrogers.com.
Alright, let's get into it.
Here's my conversation withJunior OUTTA college head
women's volleyball coach HeatherPavlik.
I.
Coach Pavlik.
So great to see you and I'm sothankful'cause you're doing this
(02:50):
right at the beginning of yourseason, the heart of where it's
crazy.
So thanks for doing this with metoday.
You're very welcome.
It's nice to be here.
I've got a first question foryou.
This is gonna be profound foryou to start with, but.
Is there a sense of relief goinginto this season knowing you
don't have to put up with thatawful Olivia Foley again?
No.
(03:10):
I, Olivia and I actually are incontact regularly and it's neat
going in with different, adifferent group.
But I certainly miss all ofthose very experienced,
wonderful people and Olivia forcertain.
You had a great group and I,it's, it was such a joy for me
to talk to her maturity and herinsight and her humility.
I just, and she's a straightshooter.
(03:33):
Yeah.
It made me miss coaching,'causethose are the type of kids you
live for, for, forget heraccolades and all that.
She's just a great kid.
And what a break for sure.
For sure.
And it's fun'cause she's astraight shooter.
I'm a straight shooter.
So we were a really good match.
Yeah.
And we talked about herrecruiting experience and I
don't know if, did you listen toher episode?
I did.
She's I was expecting this coachto love me and tell me how great
(03:56):
I was.
And she went right into saying,Hey, you gotta do this better if
you're gonna throw back sets,you gotta do this better.
Where does that come from foryou in making that first
impression and making sure a kidknows, Hey, this is serious.
This is your future.
This is my future and this is agroup of kids I'm bringing you
into.
I wanna make sure you get this.
(04:17):
Is that important for you to setthat tempo early?
Very much I think we reallybelieve in the idea of bringing
the right people through thedoor, and that's the beginning
of having a great team, ismaking sure you've got the right
people in the right places.
And them understanding whatthey're getting into, because I
think we really buy into theidea of we want you to be part
of something bigger thanyourself.
(04:37):
Yeah.
Which means setting ego asideand thinking in terms of what's
best for the team and the group.
And I remember that with Olivia.
We really wanted her and I toldher that, but I also told her,
Hey, these are a couple ofthings that, I would want you to
get better at.
And I think it's always good tobalance those things.
I think people you're recruitingshould know you really like
them, but that you also see roomfor growth because you really do
(05:00):
want them to reach theirpotential and get better during
these four years.
Yeah.
You've had all the success.
You had great success as aplayer.
You had great success as anassistant.
Your mentor is one of the bestthat's ever coached in the game.
Yes.
You've had three justunbelievable years.
Are you able to appreciate it?
Are you able to sit back alittle bit and enjoy it a little
(05:21):
bit more than you did?
Three years ago my husband'sreally good at reminding me to
stop and smell the roses alittle bit.
Yeah.
I can be very much onto thenext.
And he reminds me and did agreat job over these three years
of this is something reallyspecial, Heather, and you really
should soak it up a little bit.
And I know you won't until it'sdone, but when it's done, take
some time to reflect.
(05:41):
And so I really tried to do thatafter the last three years and,
I always just lean on my husbandfor that'cause he is very good
at reminding me.
It's our partners are so big forthose things.
And those people, they just,they don't get talked about
enough of how important ourpartner is in our future and our
kids and how we're able to coachand, basically make nothing and.
(06:03):
Make a lot less than we could bemaking and work a lot more hours
than what our salary looks liketo do this and how much we love
it.
So that's great to hear.
Has your perspective changed onhow you attack a season?
Since we're at the beginning ofa new one.
Yeah, I think it's differentevery year, right?
(06:24):
I think it just depends what youhave.
I think one of the things thatwe talked about over the last
three, even though we had thesame cast of characters, we
really did talk about the ideathat every year is individual.
It's different, even with thesame people, it's not gonna feel
the same.
It's not gonna happen the same.
You can't expect the exact sameoutcomes with things.
And remembering that it's afresh journey and it, and that's
(06:45):
what it really is.
It's a journey.
You don't really know what'sgonna be thrown at you.
You don't know what adversityyou don't know what challenges.
And I think that just by thesimple fact of having won the
first year, we were all verydifferent people that spring the
hardest spring was actually thespring of 20.
Three.
And we really had to work on theidea of, okay, listen, yes, we
(07:08):
had all the success.
That doesn't change the way youprep to try to have success
again in a very different way,even though it's all the same
people.
So I think every year's a littlebit different.
I think we went into this yearsaying, my staff and I went in
saying, okay, we've had all thesuccess, but we have all these
young players now.
Yeah.
And how do we protect them?
(07:28):
That might be the biggest dealin all of this, is how do we
help them reframe success.
How do we help them think aboutgetting better every day and not
feel the weight or the burden ofwhat they're following, because
that could be very easy.
The people around you on campus,people that you run into at the
grocery store or at the gasstation, they have some
preconceived notions of whatthey expect right now.
(07:51):
And they don't always reframethat in, okay, we've got a lot
of freshmen and sophomores whoare gonna be doing this for the
first time.
How do we take that pressure onus?
Take it away from them.
Just let them get better day byday.
It's a challenge.
It is going to be a challenge.
I've said this way too manytimes on the show, but for me, I
always looked at every freshmangoing, if I can get them to the
(08:12):
point where they're stepping onthe court.
There's some authenticity.
They're not thinking about, Igotta do this, I gotta do that,
and they're just playing.
If I can do that in 18 monthswith them, I've had a successful
recruit.
Where are you at with where youexpect that freshman to be able
to say they get it.
We can push'em a little bitmore.
(08:33):
We can talk leadership with thema little bit more.
We can raise the bar a littlebit.
Where are you at with incomingkids?
I think you have to get to thepoint where there's a lot of
self-awareness for them.
Because youngsters are notalways very self-aware with how
they present, with what they dowith, okay, are we working as
hard as we really could?
Because they don't know.
They don't know what they'regetting into.
(08:54):
They think they do, but theydon't really.
And so I think the idea of oncethey become a little bit
self-aware of, oh, wait aminute, I probably could push a
little harder here, or I couldcommunicate more, or I could
work a little harder.
Or could do this one skillbetter.
I think that's when you, I feellike, okay, we've got them now.
They're understanding that it'sa process, that they're not
gonna be perfect upfront.
(09:15):
That it's about that tiny bit ofachievement.
It's not just physical.
It could be, Hey, I had a greatmental day today in practice.
I had a great effort day.
I had a great attitude day.
When they start buying intothose kind of things, the things
that they can actually control,energy, effort, attitude, then I
(09:35):
know we've got them.
I was such a hard ass as acoach.
I always had to remind myplayers, hear the words, not the
tone.
How do we get kids to do that?
How do we get kids to believethat it's okay to do that?
We talk about it a lot too, andI think it is a challenge.
I think sometimes really greatmessages are lost because the
(09:57):
tone is not maybe what oneperson wants to hear, right?
So I think we take attack itfrom both sides.
We literally just got done doinga meeting about this last week
that sometimes you have to hearthe message and not the
delivery.
I think we talk about, hey, getreally good at.
Understanding who the peoplearound you are and what they
might need from you and how youcan deliver a message that's
(10:17):
gonna be taken well.
But when we're in the heat ofbattle, someone might say
something that is very accurateand it might not feel good at
that moment.
That's okay.
We also need to learn how to bebetter receivers.
'Cause everyone talks about themessage, but we learn need to
learn to be better receivers andwe sift through information,
hear the really good informationin it.
(10:38):
And just let the delivery go.
And if it's bothering you a daylater after you've given it some
time to think about it, thenmaybe you talk to the person
about it.
But if it's not bothering youafter 24 hours, it's time to
just let it go.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah.
We talk about letting it go allthe time.
It's such an important messagebecause if you're not letting it
(10:58):
go you're never growing.
You just, you're constantly inthe shadows and you're not
understanding.
The light is just, it's righthere.
I just gotta take a step overhere to get to the light.
I want to talk about patiencefrom your perspective because I
never had seasons like you.
I was a college basketballcoach, but we went to the
national tournament a coupletimes and we won a couple
conference championships, andafter that really good season,
(11:24):
I'm like, okay, let's go.
I want to put the pedal on themetal and build off of where we
were.
And you've, and like youmentioned, you've got these new
kids coming in.
What is your patience like nowin these first three or four
weeks of the season?
First couple of games?
Do you have to remind yourselfto take a step back or are you
(11:46):
putting the pedal to the metaland doing other things behind
the scenes to help those kidsget caught up?
I think it's a little bit ofboth.
I think in general I'm morepatient now than I was early in
my career.
Yeah.
Because I think you just, morestudent athletes over the years
and you understand thateverybody's a little different
and their timeline's a littledifferent.
Yeah.
And some get it right way andsome don't, and whenever they
get it, that's a good thing.
(12:07):
Yeah.
And even if that's a year laterso I think my patience is
better.
I think we're being especiallypatient with this group because
they have so much to learn andagain, so much expectation that
I think we're trying to push ina healthy way but also really be
there to catch them when theystruggle.
Yeah.
And have lots of goodconversations about, hey, if
(12:29):
we're getting one 10th of apercent better each day at
something physical, mental,emotional, then we're getting
better.
And that's what this is about.
It's not about.
Being perfect.
It's not about you're not gonnawin everything.
You're gonna drop sets.
Even those teams the last coupleyears didn't lose a match.
They lost sets because nobody'sperfect.
(12:50):
And I think we wanna have a lotof patients with this group
while still demanding that theydo the things they can control
to the best of their ability.
But their skills may need tocatch up for a little while.
All right.
I'm gonna ask you a really hardquestion.
Don't hang up.
Don't give up on me, but I'mgonna ask you this anyways'cause
I think it's important and it'sa very positive question.
(13:12):
I don't want it to come beperceived as negative for your
career, for the program, for theschool.
What would a loss mean thisyear, like in, in a week and
that what would that mean?
Yeah, and we've talked aboutthat in this office, the whole
off season.
(13:32):
I think the, it will beoverreaction probably around us
outside of the program, insidethe program.
I don't think we're gonna reactat all.
I think we're gonna say, okay,this is part of learning.
That's right.
In some ways it's the bestteacher.
Yeah.
The best teachers to lose.
Yeah.
Because then start highlightingthe things that you've been
talking about and say, okay,this is why we talk about this.
(13:53):
And it's going to hit them in adifferent way than if they win a
game and play just soso.
Yeah.
We've talked a lot recentlyabout the idea that the only
opinions that matter are thepeople standing in the gym
looking each other in the eye,and that's the way it has to be
all the time.
But yes, your parents are gonnahave ideas about what we're
doing and how we're doing it.
(14:13):
People around campus will haveideas about, expectations of
what we should do and how weshould do it.
But in the end, the only, onlypeople that matter is standing
in the gym every single day.
Yeah.
And as long as we can look eachother in the eye and say we're
doing our very best, that's allthat matters.
It's funny I talked to WadeWilson a couple weeks ago, the
softball coach down at TexasLutheran, and they went, when
they won their nationalchampionship, they went like 50
(14:34):
and won.
And we just talked about thatone loss because it was fairly
early in the season.
And I go, what did that one lossdo for the rest of the career,
rest of the season?
He goes.
Because we hadn't given up a runin eight games, and I think they
lost the one game, like one tonothing.
It was ridiculous.
And he goes, but we were gettingsloppy.
We hadn't given up a run, but wewere starting to get sloppy.
(14:56):
We were starting to get a littletoo big a britches, and it
brought us down to earth that wecould lose, and that if we don't
bring it every day, we don'tprepare the right way.
If we're not thinking withsignificance, we're always
thinking the success is gonnahappen then.
It was great for us to feel thatearly.
You guys haven't had a lot ofthat, yeah.
(15:17):
Mar, back in November is thefirst time you lost two sets,
right?
Yeah.
How good it was tho losing thosetwo sets for your returners
coming back this year just toknow that they can take a punch
and get right back up.
I think it was good for them tosee that.
We don't have many returners.
We only have one.
Yeah.
(15:37):
An outside hitter and I thinkshe has a pretty good handle on
that.
But even the younger players whoweren't on the floor, I think
they know how good the peoplewere, they were training against
every single day in our practicegym.
Yeah.
And they understand that, okay,they are really good and they
had won how many matches in arow at that point.
But if you don't do things theway you need to.
Yes, you can lose.
(15:58):
I think it's a good reminder.
People forget that on the frontend of this whole streak, right?
We, the third week of season in22 went to Texas.
We went down, we played Trinity,and we played awful.
We made 56 errors in that match.
And honestly, that set the tonefor everything that came after,
(16:19):
because.
They walked outta there.
We had numerous players on thatroster who said, that's not
gonna happen again.
That is not happening again.
We've gotta be better.
And every single time somethingcame up that season where we
were a little sloppy, we weren'tdoing what we're supposed to be
doing, they would bring it up.
They were like, Hey, youremember down in Texas?
(16:40):
Oh yeah, let's clean this upbecause we do not wanna see that
again.
But they referenced that for avery long time, even into the
year after that.
Then by the time we got tomidway through the 23 season,
that group was so mature thatthey didn't even need to
reference that anymore.
It was like, Hey, let's bring itin.
This is not how we playvolleyball.
That's right.
And the greatest comment duringthat semi-final came after the
(17:04):
first two games, we lose, wetake a break and.
Senior outside, hit or Kennedy,Chrissy said, I'm sorry.
This is not the way this ends.
This is not the way we're doingthis.
We're going out our way, playingour game.
This is not how I'm ending mycareer, nor is it how any of you
are ending your career.
And I didn't need to say a word.
I didn't say anything becauseshe had already covered it.
(17:26):
Ownership, yeah, love.
Absolutely.
As a basketball coach, I wouldteach in practice I'd constantly
be talking about this, that in asingle possession there might be
30 to 40 things that we could dowrong or right.
How we set the screen, how werun off the screen, how we catch
the ball, the angle we take, Isee all that in volleyball.
The steps, the positioning,anticipation blocking together,
(17:49):
you know what, whatever that maybe, where our hands are.
Our hand position on blocks.
How much of that are youteaching every day and how hard
is that to teach at your level?
We are teaching it, but I thinkwe really focus more on playing
loose and free and playingreally aggressively.
(18:11):
I think anyone who's played usthe last couple years would say
we are very ferocious.
We are very aggressive.
We want them taking swings.
We really don't worry abouterrors very much at all.
Whether that's serving, hittingif they're being aggressive
while doing it and preppingproperly.
We just say nothing about theoutcome because I don't wanna be
outcome oriented anyway.
Let's be process oriented and dothings the right way.
(18:33):
I think what we've learned overtime is that in order to teach
skills, we break it away fromthe competitive piece.
We have really competitivepeople.
They don't like to lose.
And sometimes when you'relearning to do something better
or learning something new, youget worse at it before you get
better.
Yeah.
And so they don't want to do itduring six on six play in
practice because they don'twanna cost their team and they
(18:53):
don't wanna lose.
So we've learned to take theskill stuff away from the
competitive piece.
So we actually do small groupsessions during the week and we
have two or three people in it.
And that's where we work on thetechnique pieces.
Yeah, perfecting that handposition.
Perfecting your passingtechnique.
Perfecting your settingtechnique because there's no
scoreboard.
It's just you and I.
(19:13):
It's just you and Casey.
And let's do it right.
And you just simply keep workingon it there until it flows
naturally into their six on sixgame, and then it becomes part
of what they do, and they canreally just think about
competing and being aggressive.
Because when they're playing, wedon't want them thinking about
the technical things.
Players with too many thoughtsin their head do not play loose
(19:33):
and free.
So we try to remove as many ofthose thoughts as we can and let
them play very naturally.
Love that.
It's the goal for every coach isto get your team there.
And oftentimes we, and I was abig problem with this.
I'd get in the way, and it'ssometimes it's just getting the
heck outta the way is where yousee the more growth.
(19:54):
So I love that.
So is that more individualworkouts between classes or is
that early on in practice?
No, we just had a couple, wekinda have'em come in whenever
it fits their schedule.
And we just work through all thetechnical pieces of it.
We may film it so that they cansee what they're doing.
Love it.
But yeah it's hard to.
We say, when you're playing sixon six, we only want you
thinking about being reallycompetitive and maybe thinking
(20:17):
about some of the tacticalconcerns.
Who's in front of you, what dothey do?
But for yourself, let's justplay, let's just go.
How many times a week are youdoing that with a group of kids?
And then are you doing that allseason long?
We do it all season long.
We try to make sure every playergets one of those every single
week.
Because I think the other thingit does is you're gonna have
people who maybe aren't gettingmuch playing time.
(20:37):
Yeah.
And even in practice, they don'tplay as much as some other
people that way, every one ofour players knows that they're
getting our undivided attentionon them for this amount of time.
Just worried about them.
I think that goes a long way aswell.
How many kids do you carry?
Right now we're at 22.
I think we've been, last year wewere 25'cause we had the grad
students back.
(20:58):
So we were a little larger, butwe're about 22.
You graduated what?
Eight?
We actually graduated 10.
We had seven seniors and threegrad students.
That's right.
Gosh, that's crazy.
It's a lot of people.
Oh gosh.
That hurts my, just hurts myhead.
Thinking about replacing 10 kidslike that's great.
We do, it's interesting becauseI think the younger players.
(21:18):
Last spring started to figureout, oh wow.
We already know how to play at ahigh level because we played
against those people every day.
It was a realization that Idon't think they had until after
maybe we played some of ourspring competition.
Yeah.
And they realized, oh, we'rewait.
We're pretty good and we knowhow to do this.
Yeah.
I'm like, yeah.
'cause you were playing againstreally good people every single
day for the last year or two,depending on your age.
(21:41):
The idea of.
We're the only ones that arebeating the national champions
every week.
That's pretty good thought.
I remember distinctly the daylast season when the youngsters
'cause we'll sometimes go splitsquad, sometimes we'll go stack
squad.
We do some of both.
I distinctly remember the daythat they beat the first team
because there was justjubilance, there was just
(22:02):
celebration.
My gosh, that must have beenawesome.
We just did that.
I'm like, you absolutely didjust do that.
And that's amazing.
That is so great.
And again, you didn't have thatloss or that you had that set
streak, so that must have beenhuge for your starters.
Yeah they they took any kind ofa loss very hard.
That group did not like to loseat anything.
(22:24):
We have a lot of insanelycompetitive people in that
group.
Let's go back talking aboutthat.
What do you typically play in agame?
Do you get to 10?
Sometimes I would say theaverage is probably 9, 9, 9
players.
So that's thir 12, 13 kids thataren't seeing the floor.
You talk about having thatone-on-one once a week with
them.
(22:46):
What does that look like inpractice?
Those 11, 13, 11, 12 that aren'tseeing a lot of court time and
games?
Where is your focus?
How are you being proactive?
How much are you relying on yourstaff for that development with
them?
Where, what's that look like foryou?
I think it's a little of all ofthe above.
We've got a great staff.
I Casey Dale's my associate headcoach.
(23:06):
He's been here for 12 years.
So we've worked together a verylong time.
He's doing what I had done.
Previously,'cause I was here 15as an assistant and an associate
head coach.
And then we have Aaron Smith isour assistant.
She's come in the last twoyears.
Really nice having her.
'cause she's much closer totheir age.
Yeah.
So they have someone who'srecently played and she gets it.
We've got great studentassistants and we use all,
(23:27):
everybody to try to help that.
I would say it depends on whatpart of practice we're in.
So when we start practice, we'vegot everyone doing everything.
And then I think as we gettowards the end of our practice,
we'll do more six on six basethings.
So you might have 14 to 16players out there at any given
time.
Maybe you're using some servingsubs and we do some different
things but we always have asecond court going.
(23:49):
We have a second court overthere where at any time, anybody
who's off at that any givenmoment.
Can grab a coach, go down thereand work on some things.
That's right.
Work on some of their passing,serving, hitting, whatever it
might be.
So we've got people coming backand forth between the two courts
pretty often.
And I think we try to get everysingle player into that six on
six at some point through it.
(24:10):
And whether that is, Hey, we'regonna go with the top 14 to 16
in the first game here, thenwe're gonna play another game
and we're gonna switch it up.
And we're gonna get everybody inthere.
So we really do make a concertedeffort to do that.
Certainly some people get morethan others but I think the
people who don't get as muchhave the opportunity to go with
a coach to that other court allthe time.
And we encourage that.
(24:31):
We make sure again, that they'regetting that individual work
during the week with us, so theyfeel like that, their game's
moving forward and that they'regetting our undivided attention.
I am gonna ask you, I'm gonnabreak my rule and I'm gonna ask
you a recruiting question inthis segment.
'cause I think it flows wellwhen you know you're gonna carry
22.
And you, every year you have apretty good idea of what that
(24:53):
nine 10 eleven's probably gonnalook like or what you hope it's
gonna look like or what itshould look like.
Is it affecting how yourrecruiting.
In terms of I don't need tobring in a kid that is gonna get
me 200 kills this year, or needsto step in and be a starter
(25:15):
right away.
Is it changing your thoughtprocess about how you're
evaluating a high schooler interms of the time you might have
to develop them?
Maybe a little bit.
Maybe a little bit.
It probably depends how good thepeople in their position are,
right?
I think, yeah.
If you have the opportunity atany point to get a player you
think could be in an allAmerica, right?
(25:37):
You go regardless.
You go get them, period.
Because my job in the end is tomake this team as good as it can
be.
But I think we do, I think we'revery honest with them when they
come in for their recruitingvisit though too.
If we don't think someone wouldsee floor time for a couple
years and it could bedevelopmental for year one and
year two, we tell them that.
They have to know that coming inso that it's not a surprise.
(25:58):
We never guarantee anyone astarting position, so there's
not a single person on our teamwho's ever come in for a visit
and said, oh yeah, by the way,you'll start with we, we simply
don't do that.
Yeah.
So even those very best recruitswho we think can compete
immediately, we're saying, Hey,you can come in and compete.
We think you can be verycompetitive from the start, but
you have to do the right thingsand the rest is up to you.
(26:19):
Yeah.
I'm just I'm more wondering, yousee a six four baby giraffe.
And you're like, oh my gosh,this, we can't teach that this
kid can't, can barely walk andchew gum at the same time.
But I see just a glimmer of whatthey could become.
Is That's a chance you get.
We go after them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because there are certain thingsthat coaches can't teach.
I can't teach someone to be sixfour.
(26:40):
That kind of length and abilitytakes time to develop.
You're, they're usually notstrong enough and that's why
they don't control their limbsas well as they need to.
And the strength andconditioning piece here is what
we do.
Some, we do it really well, andwe always have, so we know we
can get that person stronger.
We had a starter on the floorlast year that was exactly that.
Just all arms and legs that wenteverywhere when she came in.
(27:02):
And as she got stronger, shestarted to get good.
So yeah, certainly we have roomfor some developmental kind of
players who bring somethingunique to the table that we just
need to uncover and help getstrong and do some other things.
It's, it was, it's almost.
Almost more fun to have a coupleof those kids because they don't
have, they don't havemisconceptions.
(27:22):
They haven't been taught thewrong way.
It's a clean sheet and if theyhave a work ethic, you can get
them being absolutely muchgreater than where their
potential may have been beforethey got to you.
Absolutely.
And when they do get it, thatlight bulb moment is one of the
best feelings in the world for acoach.
I, you're like, ah, she got it.
It's right there.
We had one of those the otherday in the practice gym with one
(27:43):
of our youngsters, and it feelsso good when the light bulb goes
on for them and for us.
And yeah, those are fun.
It's fun to watch them developand get better.
For sure.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
Walk me through practiceplanning.
When does it start?
Yeah, we, what does it looklike?
We get together about 11 o'clockeach day.
Usually Casey and I,occasionally Erin will be here,
(28:04):
sometimes she won't but Caseyand I get together at about 11
and we let our players know.
That's the time we practiceplan.
So if something comes up, you'renot feeling well, you've got a
meeting with a prof.
Let us know so that we can planappropriately for who's gonna be
there at the beginning ofpractice and who might be a
little bit late.
I think we sit down, we think interms of the whole week, what do
we need to get done through thewhole week?
And we'll make lists on theboard where are we incorporating
(28:26):
these things that we need towork on.
Usually, we'll alternate days ofStack Squad, split squad, and
we'll go every other day or so.
We'll also go maybe every otherday or every couple days with
are we gonna focus more today onthe point scoring part of the
game, the serving, the defense,the transition, the blocking
versus maybe the next day we'refocusing on the receive game,
(28:47):
the passing, the offense, thefirst swing offense.
We alternate those by day, butthey know we're gonna have a
focus every single day.
Yeah.
We always do a pre-practice.
I throw a pre-practice on theboard right after we're done.
Doing our practice planning whenthey get to the gym so that they
don't sit around and just talk.
They have something, they knowit's gonna start at eight
minutes before the hour.
(29:07):
This is what we want you to do,and they know how to get out
there, get going so that whenthe buzzer rings and it is four
o'clock, if we're practicing atfour, we're gonna go.
Yeah.
And they're already ready to gocompletely.
But that's how we structurethings.
I think it's very, it isrepetitive.
There are things we will doevery single day.
We pass and serve every singleday.
(29:28):
Of course, it doesn't soundexciting.
No one, it isn't.
It isn't exciting.
It's the mundane part oftraining that you have to do if
you wanna be great.
And we try to give themdifferent focuses each day to
keep it fresh, have the onething they're thinking about and
working on.
Because let's be honest, youpass and serve for 20 minutes to
half an hour.
It's not exciting.
(29:48):
It's not exciting kind of stuff,but we have to find a way to do
it well because at all levels ofvolleyball, if you can't pass
and serve, you really can'tplay.
See you later if you can't passserve.
So find a way new way to make itexciting.
Score it differently.
Give them a different focus forthe day.
Give them something to reallythink about.
Servers.
We don't want them going backthere and just being mindless.
(30:10):
And just throwing serves inplay.
All right.
I want you to hit this today.
I want you to go sidelines andseams today.
I want you to go deep and thenshort.
Just give them some things tofocus on each time we do it, so
it keeps it a little moreexciting.
I'm gonna go back to you talkingabout making sure they play
loose and free and they'reconfident and aggressive.
You were such a good player.
You've had such great success.
(30:32):
When you've got a kid that doessomething, a way that.
Just doesn't catch your eye.
How they serve, how they jump,serve, how they flat serve, how
they block, and it's differentthe way you know it.
In your soul that works, is thathard for you to let them be who
they are or do you let them failat what they're doing and then
(30:54):
say, Hey let's try a differentway.
Where are you at with that?
Both.
Okay.
So I don't wanna turn.
I feel very strongly, I don'twant my players to look like
robots, right?
They do not need to all lookexactly the same.
Their bodies work a littledifferently.
And if they have a technique andit works at this level we're
okay with that.
(31:14):
We'll let them look a littledifferent than somebody else and
the way they do something.
For instance, we don'tnecessarily do big swing
blocking, but if someone'sreally good at it and they get
the job done with it.
I don't think we're gonna worryabout it too much.
I think we gently say, Hey, whatif we tweak this a little bit to
someone who maybe is doing theskill and what they're doing
(31:34):
isn't as good as it could be?
I think we'll say, Hey, listen,what, why don't we try this on
this time?
Let's just go in the gym andjust do it and see how it goes.
Yeah.
And I think as they get inthere,'cause I, what I don't
wanna do is make them feel likewhat they're doing is wrong or
it's bad in any way.
Let's just tweak this.
Let's see if we can get evenbetter at this.
(31:55):
And that's how we attack thatkind of stuff.
And some of that's with serving.
We've been doing that with aserver recently where I'll just
say, how about you try thistime?
Let's see how it goes.
And she'll do it.
And how did that feel?
It felt different.
It's going to, it's gonna, yeah.
What about trying it again?
And actually she's doing thatskill really well.
Now that's great.
But it was a little tweak.
It wasn't an overhaul in anyway.
(32:15):
Yeah.
But again that's the great thingabout being a coach is when that
light bulb goes off, when youcan make just a little bit of
tweak and all of a sudden itstarts working the best example
I can give of that, we had aplayer years ago actually played
on the first championship team.
In 2004.
She had a serve that I thinkmost people would've changed
because she would take the bowland wind it up and toss it for a
jump serve.
(32:36):
It just looked so different fromeverybody else's.
She was really consistent andreally good at it.
So that player ended up Ibelieve in her maybe in oh five,
that player, we were down nineto 14 in a fifth game.
She went back to the line toserve.
We literally was like, andpeople were like, oh, you let
her jump surf?
(32:56):
Absolutely.
This is what she does.
This is the moment this is for,and she literally served us
through a 1614 win with thatserve that didn't look like
anybody else's because she wasalready really good at it.
So there was really no reason tochange it.
Yeah muscle memory andconsistency can go a long way,
can't I?
Yeah it's about how repeatableis the technique they're using,
(33:16):
and if it is super repeatableand they're successful, then.
I don't think we need to changeit.
How do you handle a kid that'sstruggling in a game Because you
want them to play loose andfreeze.
You don't want them to feelthey're gonna get yanked if they
miss a server or two.
How do you handle that kid thatmaybe is hit three kills in the
net in a row, how, why does yourmind work on the sideline when
(33:39):
you're seeing a kid that'sstruggling a little bit?
I think, first of all, I thinkwe talked to our players about
the idea that they win jobs.
To go on the court in thepractice gym.
Yeah.
We're not into the gamer thing.
Let's be a practicer.
Yeah.
And let's practice really wellevery single day.
We get lots of stats on it, weget lots of data.
We do not have a quick hook.
We do not have a quick hook withpeople at all.
(34:01):
There's a reason they're outthere and we do let them work
through some things sometimesand that can get a little ugly
once in a while.
And I just don't think pullingpeople in and out does a lot for
confidence.
Now granted, I think there aretimes when we absolutely need to
make a sub, right?
We need to make a sub, we needto get somebody else in there.
But I wanna make sure that whenthat person comes off the floor,
(34:22):
they sit next to me, come sitnext to me, let's talk.
Hey, listen, you were strugglingwith this.
Let's go down to the end of thebench, do some deep breathing,
get yourself together and beready to go again.
'cause we may need you herereally soon.
Then the next game, if that's astarter that we've had, we'll
probably start them again thenext game.
Yeah.
You might save them in a littlebit of snippets and then you
talk to the person who went in,Hey listen, really good job way
(34:45):
to go in there and do your job.
Your job is to come in, settlethings down and you did it
extremely well.
Be ready if we need you again.
But they know that just becausethey went in and did wow, it
doesn't mean they're the starterall of a sudden.
'cause that's earned over timein the practice gym.
It's what you do over many weeksof time, not what you do to just
today or tomorrow.
And that works if that messageis there every day, if it's
(35:07):
there from the beginning.
I think we try to, we talk aboutover communicating.
Yeah.
Because I really do think in theabsence of communication,
players usually think the worst.
Coaches usually think the best.
Oh, she's fine.
Coaches think, oh, she's fine.
The player thinks, oh, theythink I'm awful.
The truth is in the middlesomewhere.
Yeah.
And so we wanna make sure thatin all of those instances, we're
(35:28):
communicating with them why didwe do what we did?
How they should maybe canreframe that and think about
that for the next time thatsituation comes up.
We wanna make sure that we givethem ways to deal with it.
Ways to process it.
I don't think I've seen, whenI've watched your games, I don't
feel like you in set make a lotof big changes rotation wise.
(35:48):
It's typically between setswhere you'll say, we, let's give
her a little bit of a break.
Let's give her a set off.
Is that, am I seeing that right?
Is that typical?
I think that's, that would beaccurate probably over the last
three years with that group.
Yeah.
I think that maybe with adifferent group, a little bit
more of that.
Yeah.
If you have to.
But I do think we want people tohave the opportunity to struggle
a little bit and work throughit.
(36:09):
Because otherwise, how do theylearn to do it?
If you pull them out every time,they start to struggle a little
bit.
You have your rotational limitsthat I never had as a basketball
coach.
I could pull a kid for a minuteand have say, all right, get
back in there.
You don't have that ability.
You only have so many subs.
Yeah.
And so you have to let somepeople work through some things
sometimes too.
Yeah, and you've gotta be smartabout when you're subbing in and
when you're subbing out andwhere they're at in the
rotation.
So that just with a daughterthat's played club volleyball
(36:31):
for the last six years, I'mjust.
I figure, I think I'm justlearning and I feel like I'm
just figuring out how rotationswork.
And you think ahead too, right?
Yeah.
If I'm going to run outta subs,who am I leaving in and who am I
getting out?
You gotta think about that alittle bit because you don't
want that five seven up there inthe front row, what you got.
No.
And even the best coaching jobyou do, it does happen
sometimes, but you try not to,is the mindset for you, if I'm
(36:55):
gonna, if I'm out of rotations,I want to make sure I'm leaving
big in front, is that priorityone?
Sometimes.
Sometimes, yeah.
Especially if they have at leastsome experience and ability to
go back row at some point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like the last couple years, ifwe were gonna run outta subs, we
were most likely to live leaveAudrey Muth.
'cause we knew she could go backthere and serve and play
(37:16):
defense.
We were most likely to leaveLily Polan in because she could
do the same.
Okay.
And Lily reminds me all the timethat the few times I've run
outta subs and she had to goback and serve, she served two
ACEs.
So she'll never let that down.
What more do you need to gocoach?
Two ACEs.
That's right you, you yourimpression I get from you is
you're tougher in nails, heartis stone, but a big heart.
(37:38):
When do you get emotional?
Oh, I think I get emotional whenI see them have success.
When you see the joy on theirfaces, whether that's daily in
the practice gym, or whetherthat's after a big win or
success elsewhere, right?
They come in and they say, Ijust did the most amazing job on
my presentation because you'rewatching people.
(38:00):
In a time of their lives whenthey're figuring out who they
are, what they're about, andwhat they stand for.
And when you see the light bulbgo on, things happen that you
know is gonna carry them intotheir later life with lots of
success, that's when I get alittle bit of emotion.
So when I watch them walk acrossthe graduation stage definitely
get emotional because you thinkabout who they were when they
(38:22):
came in.
Then see who they are when theyleave, and how much they've
developed and changed.
That's just that kicks intogear.
A little bit of tears for me.
It's hard because I don't cryoften.
Yeah.
The older I get when I, theolder I get, I the biggest, the
bigger cry baby I've become, soI cry more now than I probably
did in my first 45, 50 years oflife.
(38:43):
That's, it's just, you have tobe so tough for your kids and
you have to be so strong foryour kids, and you want them to
understand how we play and howwe react.
But there's that time where it'sjust, it's hard not to be
emotional.
Agreed.
You've raised great.
I agree wholeheartedly.
And they're doing well for you,coach, you'd be you, whether you
wanna admit it or not, you'vebecome the standard for Division
(39:05):
three volleyball.
Do you feel that pressure?
Do you welcome the idea thatyou're the teacher that
everybody wants to learn fromyou?
How do you feel about havingthat over you?
I don't know.
I guess I go back and forth onthat.
I think that we all have thatpart of us that is like me.
(39:26):
Who am I?
I think that's normal.
I think I had the benefit ofhaving Larry Bach be my mentor,
who is in my mind, one of thebest coaches who's ever coached
the game.
And watching how he handledhimself was amazing.
Always very humble, always verymodest, always.
Knowing that he didn't knoweverything and wanting to learn
(39:46):
more.
So I've guessed if I can helpsomebody learn I wanna take on
that and wear it like a badge ofhonor.
But at the same time, I stillfeel all the time, like I have
so much to learn that when youhave conversations with people,
I learn as much from them asthey do for me.
I guarantee it.
And that's the place I kindalive in.
That you should still wannalearn, you should still wanna
(40:07):
get better, you should still bedeveloping.
And along the way, if you canhelp anybody, then that's
golden.
That's wonderful.
Yeah.
When you look at the landscapeof youth volleyball, you know
that the club volleyball and thegames these kids are playing in
the length of the season, do youfeel like you have a voice now
(40:28):
to help?
Make that healthier?
Is that something I try?
Is that something you want todo?
I think it's a huge deal.
Yes, I do wanna have a voicesaying, we need to make sure
that some of these players getat least a couple weeks off.
Right now many of them aregetting no time off.
Nothing.
We had nothing ever and'causethings are crossing over one
(40:52):
another.
We talk about it here all thetime.
The way we coach the game hashad to change because we get
freshmen in here with overuseinjuries.
Used to be years ago, we onlygot juniors and seniors who
would get some overuse things asthey got a little bit older.
We have so many players comingin here with shoulders that are
already not great with backs,lower backs for defensive
(41:13):
players that are not greatbecause they are playing on
concrete with this much sportcourt over top of it.
Every single weekend.
Yeah.
This spring playing five and sixmatches.
They are going straight from theend of club season at nationals
and coming home and doing opengyms with their high schools
immediately.
Then having club p, tryouts theweek after that, we don't feel
(41:34):
it's very healthy.
I say I will say that to anybodywho will listen at any time
because I think we're doing'em adisservice.
I think that they play the gamebetter than they used to.
But they're sometimes physicallyand mentally a mess.
They are because they just havenot gotten that recovery time.
And I know in our program wetalk about recovery a lot, and
(41:59):
not just physical recovery,emotional recovery, mental
recovery because everyone wastalking about how they train.
Do we talk about recoveryenough?
Do we teach them how to recover?
Do we teach them that it's okayto have other things that they
like to do for downtime?
We think it's so important.
It's one of the things in thisprogram we always take off
(42:19):
Sundays, we do nothing onSundays ever.
Yeah.
Because we feel like that's aday they should be able to do
whatever they wanna do.
And they need it and it'shealthy.
And if they have other thingsthat they like to do, art.
We've had artists in thisprogram.
We have people who like to sing.
We have people who dance.
One of our best players is adancer and she's continued to
dance during these four years.
(42:40):
That's great.
Because it's what makes herhappy and it keeps her in a
really great place.
And feeling really good aboutwhat she's doing and how she's
doing it.
Yeah.
Anyone who listen, I will saythat too because I think it's a
huge deal right now.
And I imagine you'd say the samething about multi-sport athletes
and you want that kid that'splaying.
Volleyball, basketball,softball, right?
(43:01):
Yes.
Yes.
And we, that's what we just had,if everyone was for the last
three, four years, talking aboutthe three players we that just
graduated last year, who weregrad students?
Olivia Kennedy, and Skye.
They were all my multi-sportathletes In high school.
Yeah, all of them.
And they were good at multiplethings, and they didn't have a
ton of overuse injuries whenthey came in here.
(43:22):
We definitely see more overuseinjuries from people who have
only played volleyball.
Yeah.
It's every study for the last 30years.
Makes it clear there's just nocross training.
How do we fix these clubs thathave gotten so big?
They've got eight courts intheir facility.
They've got 24 teams, 12 yearsup.
They got 24 teams.
They can't find five goodcoaches, let alone 24.
(43:47):
How do we fix that?
Because a lot of that burnout, alot of that bad technique, a lot
of that unhealthy kids that aregetting burned out and not
playing anymore, it starts withcoaches that really have no
business coaching, let alone aseven month season.
Yeah.
It's a challenge.
I think it's a real challengeschedule.
(44:11):
The, I think as soon as the highschool coaches started getting
less time with'em.
'cause let's be honest, a highschool coach is not in it to
make money.
A high school coach is in itbecause they care about the
kids.
At least that's what I've seenover the years.
Yeah.
And they have them less andless, and the clubs have them
more and more.
And if you are lucky enough tohave a great club coach, then
great.
You're getting good training,you're getting someone who cares
(44:32):
about you as an individual.
But I think your point is a verygood one that.
It's hard to find five goodcoaches and if you need 30,
where do they come from?
And what kind of training are wegiving them?
I think that's the biggestthing, right?
You can't find 30, mastercoaches, you're not gonna find
that.
No, but how are we trainingthose young coaches coming into
(44:54):
clubs?
How are we teaching them notabout the game?
Because they've probably playedand they've done some things and
everyone wants to focus on let'steach them to teach skills.
But how do you get.
An understanding of how to dealwith youngsters.
Yeah.
How to be positive with them.
How to help them learn in a waythat's beneficial to them.
(45:15):
How to communicate with them.
I think all of those things arevery challenging and missing,
and we may have to in some ofthose larger clubs, if they have
a master coach, that'sphenomenal.
I think that is much needed insome of the bigger clubs to have
a master coach who goes to allthe practices, not some, all of
them, and can say to someone,Hey, here's a better way to say
(45:38):
that.
Yeah.
Or Here's a better way to thinkabout this.
That's right.
'cause that's the only way youngcoaches learn too and we're
doing them a disservice becausethey don't always have a mentor,
somebody who can help themthrough those early years.
And we all need that when we'reyoung coaches.
That's how you learn.
I just see such a lack ofpreparation.
They don't know how to prepare.
Not for a practice.
Yeah.
Teaching how to do a practiceplan, right?
(46:00):
Yeah.
Yeah.
'cause once you know how toprepare, saying, okay, this is
what we're gonna get done today.
This is how we're gonna teach itthe right way.
And this is what I want my toneto be today.
This is what I want my energy tobe today.
Go beyond that.
How do we, how many reps arethey getting?
Exactly.
How are we controlling the reps?
Making sure that some of thesepeople are not taking hundreds
(46:21):
and hundreds of reps when theydon't need to.
That's right.
Such a huge thing.
Whenever you wanna write a bookor do a master class, you just
let me know.
I'm in to help you with itbecause, yeah, I just talked to
Susie Enquist and, it was just afire hose of she's just like
you, she's got all thisinformation and she's just
trying to figure out, how do Ihelp more coaches?
(46:41):
How do I help more kids behealthy?
And it's so hard for you becauseyou've got these 22 kids in your
own family that you're, you'vegotta put your energy into.
But we need more of those masterteachers and motivators.
We need them in front.
Of these high school coaches andclub coaches just to say, Hey
there's a healthier way to dothis.
And there's, and it is achallenge too, right?
(47:03):
You almost feel like our newlyretired coaches are the ones we
need.
Because this job has gotten somuch busier over the years, I
find with each passing year, Ihave less and less time to do
the volleyball pieces becauseyou're spending more time on
other things that.
Good.
They're good things that arebeing added in.
Yeah.
But they do take a lot of timeFor sure.
(47:24):
Podcasts with me.
Yeah.
Why not?
I really appreciate it.
You're welcome.
I'm gonna do a little rapid firewith you.
I wanna do a little fun just sopeople Okay.
Throw you a little bit better.
Is there a match that comes tomind when you.
When you think about yourcoaching history, it doesn't
have to be a nationalchampionship, but is there a
(47:44):
match where you kinda wake upand you remember and you think
about a match or a set more thanmost?
The 22 championship.
Yeah.
Because it's not when some, itwas not when we were expected to
win.
Yeah.
And the way they handlethemselves.
From after we lost in Texasuntil that championship.
That's it.
I was a mess after that match.
(48:05):
I was like, that just happened.
Wow.
That just happened.
And the cool part was Larry Bachwas there and literally the
first person that I see after myteam is him.
That's awesome.
And that, that just, thatbrought me to tears.
It would've had to been, oh,that's so great.
Oh, what was, look on his face.
He is so low key all the timethat he was like good job,
(48:27):
Heather.
Thanks.
And I threw my arms around andgave him a big hug, but he is
always very low key.
Cool.
He sat and hid up in the standswith my husband.
That's cool.
All right the junior OUTTA gymis rocking.
What's your pre-match ritual?
Do you have something?
Mine?
Yeah.
I'm so boring.
I'm so boring.
I sit in my office longer thanthe rest of the staff usually
(48:49):
goes out before me.
I'll sit in my office here alittle bit, take a few deep
breaths, get my charts together.
And then I actually.
In our gym, we play on the wrongside of the gym because years
ago there was an advantage tostarting over there.
'cause we had windows up top.
Okay.
So we're on the wrong side ofthe gym actually.
So I walk under the bleachers soas not to see anybody, and get
(49:10):
to the other side of the gym.
That's my.
My prematch.
Yeah.
I would typically walk out abouttwo minutes before the game was,
I do, I'm really low key.
Yeah.
I'm very low key.
So I go under the bleachers andpop out on the other side right
at the bench.
I, same way.
Who's tougher to coach?
Heather the player, or Heather?
The coach today.
Oh, Heather, the player.
(49:32):
I was very stubborn.
Very stubborn.
Do God bless Larry Bach?
Do you remind yourself of that?
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
And when you get those stubborn,although I will say some of the
best players are very stubborn.
That's right.
They are.
'cause they know they're good.
Yep.
But yeah, I do.
When someone's beingparticularly ordinary, I'm like,
yeah, I didn't have to coachmyself, so that's good.
That's right.
(49:52):
One word your players would useto describe you.
Boy that's changed over theyears.
I think two years ago theywould've used a very intent,
like intense.
Yeah.
And now I would say, I thinkthey would say consistent.
Very good.
I think I'm very consistent,obviously.
Yes.
Favorite away Jim to compete inand why?
Ooh.
I.
Today I love playing at Hope.
(50:15):
I lo I love playing at Hopebecause I love him playing
places where you get a lot of alot of fans who don't like you
very much.
Those are the best places.
Years ago I just said Watch u.
Yeah, great kids.
'cause there's always a greatrivalry between the teams and
that place Got.
Packed and nasty.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I wanna see that.
Did you play hope this year?
(50:35):
We played them last year.
That's, we actually went, wedon't play them this year, but
we went up there last year andit was a great environment.
It was a really fun collegiatematch.
Yeah.
And it's a beautiful gym too.
Yeah.
You and Becky have similarapproaches.
That's a battle when you guys goat it.
Which opponent has pushed you tobe your best?
Which, is there an opponent thatyou've faced over the years that
you feel like.
(50:56):
Has pushed you to do some thingsdifferently or you've learned?,
I think that's changed with whatwhat era we're talking about.
I think there was a Wash U erathat pushed us to be better as a
program.
'cause we had to be, to beatthat.
I think then we went through alittle Emory era where they
pushed us pretty darn hard.
I think there was a littleHopkins era there and I think
the hope, I think hope isabsolutely there.
(51:18):
I think we knew we had to raiseour game.
That's awesome.
Coach.
Thank you so much for doingthis.
I had a blast talking to you.
I could talk to you all day longand I know our audience, who's,
it's a lot of families, it's alot of high school coaches that
listen to this so much value.
Thanks for doing this.
Oh, you're so welcome.
Thank you for having me.
That was Junior outta collegehead coach Heather Pavlik.
(51:41):
What stands out most to me aboutHeather isn't just the three
straight national championshipsor even the back-to-back perfect
seasons, it's the way she leads.
Her.
Players know she's gonna pushthem to their limits, but they
also know she cares deeply aboutwho they are off the court.
That combination of toughnessand compassion is so rare.
(52:01):
It's why she epitomizessignificant leadership.
She's developing champions involleyball, but more
importantly, she's preparingyoung women for life and we're
not done.
Part two of my conversation withCoach Pavlik drops on September
15th on significant recruiting.
In that episode, she's gonnatalk about what she looks for in
a recruit, how parents can bestsupport their daughters in this
(52:24):
recruiting process, and whydivision three opportunities
like Jutta can be absolutelytransformational.
Like my D three experience was.
Before you go.
Make sure you subscribe.
Hit that favorite button andshare this podcast with somebody
who needs it.
That support means the world tous.
It's how this show continues togrow.
(52:45):
And don't forget, you can findmy book significant Recruiting
the Playbook for prospectivecollege athletes.
My brand new recruits journalseries where you can pick up
your recruiting journal forbaseball, basketball, softball,
volleyball, and nowsoccer@coachmattrogers.com.
Each one of these journals isbuilt to keep athletes
(53:05):
organized, confident, and readyfor the next step in their
journey.
Until next time, stay focused.
Stay humble.
And keep leading withsignificance.
We've talked a lot recentlyabout the idea that the only
opinions that matter are thepeople standing in the gym
looking each other in the eye,and that's the way it has to be
all the time.
But yes, your parents are gonnahave ideas about what we're
doing and how we're doing it.
People around campus will haveideas about, expectations of
what we should do and how weshould do it.
But in the end, the only, onlypeople that matter is standing
(00:22):
in the gym every single day.
Welcome back to The SignificantCoaching Podcast.
I'm your host Matt Rogers.
Every year across every sport anNCAA champion is crowned.
(00:43):
That alone is rarefied air, butwinning back-to-back
championships.
That's almost unheard of.
And then there's Juta CollegeWomen's Volleyball under the
leadership of Head Coach HeatherPavlik, our guest today.
The Eagles haven't just won backto back championships.
They've won three straight andin the process they've gone a
(01:06):
combined 70 and oh.
Over the past two seasons, evenmore remarkable, they've done it
while graduating three keyplayers after each of those
championship runs.
That doesn't happen by accident.
That's a testament to theculture.
Heather has built the program'sstandard of excellence and her
ability to teach and lead at thehighest level.
(01:28):
Coach Pavlik has been recognizedeight times as the Landmark
Conference Coach of the year,and in 2024 she was named the
American Volleyball CoachesAssociation National Coach of
the Year.
Few leaders in any sport havematched her ability to sustain
dominance while continuing togrow the People Insider Program.
(01:48):
Today you'll hear her talk aboutteaching her players that the
only opinions that matter arefrom those who show up every day
and put in the work on theircourt.
It's a lesson rooted in bothtoughness and love, the same
combination that has made her achampionship coach and a
transformational leader.
Before we dive in, let me remindyou.
(02:09):
If this podcast is bringing youvalue, hit that subscribe
button, click favorite, share itwith your teams, share it with
your families, and even drop ina comment.
That's how we continue to growthis coaching, recruiting, and
learning community.
And don't forget, you can findmy book Significant Recruiting,
the Playbook for prospectivecollege athletes, along with the
(02:30):
recruits journal series,baseball, basketball, softball,
volleyball, and nowsoccer@coachmattrogers.com.
Alright, let's get into it.
Here's my conversation withJunior OUTTA college head
women's volleyball coach HeatherPavlik.
I.
Coach Pavlik.
So great to see you and I'm sothankful'cause you're doing this
(02:50):
right at the beginning of yourseason, the heart of where it's
crazy.
So thanks for doing this with metoday.
You're very welcome.
It's nice to be here.
I've got a first question foryou.
This is gonna be profound foryou to start with, but.
Is there a sense of relief goinginto this season knowing you
don't have to put up with thatawful Olivia Foley again?
No.
(03:10):
I, Olivia and I actually are incontact regularly and it's neat
going in with different, adifferent group.
But I certainly miss all ofthose very experienced,
wonderful people and Olivia forcertain.
You had a great group and I,it's, it was such a joy for me
to talk to her maturity and herinsight and her humility.
I just, and she's a straightshooter.
(03:33):
Yeah.
It made me miss coaching,'causethose are the type of kids you
live for, for, forget heraccolades and all that.
She's just a great kid.
And what a break for sure.
For sure.
And it's fun'cause she's astraight shooter.
I'm a straight shooter.
So we were a really good match.
Yeah.
And we talked about herrecruiting experience and I
don't know if, did you listen toher episode?
I did.
She's I was expecting this coachto love me and tell me how great
(03:56):
I was.
And she went right into saying,Hey, you gotta do this better if
you're gonna throw back sets,you gotta do this better.
Where does that come from foryou in making that first
impression and making sure a kidknows, Hey, this is serious.
This is your future.
This is my future and this is agroup of kids I'm bringing you
into.
I wanna make sure you get this.
(04:17):
Is that important for you to setthat tempo early?
Very much I think we reallybelieve in the idea of bringing
the right people through thedoor, and that's the beginning
of having a great team, ismaking sure you've got the right
people in the right places.
And them understanding whatthey're getting into, because I
think we really buy into theidea of we want you to be part
of something bigger thanyourself.
(04:37):
Yeah.
Which means setting ego asideand thinking in terms of what's
best for the team and the group.
And I remember that with Olivia.
We really wanted her and I toldher that, but I also told her,
Hey, these are a couple ofthings that, I would want you to
get better at.
And I think it's always good tobalance those things.
I think people you're recruitingshould know you really like
them, but that you also see roomfor growth because you really do
(05:00):
want them to reach theirpotential and get better during
these four years.
Yeah.
You've had all the success.
You had great success as aplayer.
You had great success as anassistant.
Your mentor is one of the bestthat's ever coached in the game.
Yes.
You've had three justunbelievable years.
Are you able to appreciate it?
Are you able to sit back alittle bit and enjoy it a little
(05:21):
bit more than you did?
Three years ago my husband'sreally good at reminding me to
stop and smell the roses alittle bit.
Yeah.
I can be very much onto thenext.
And he reminds me and did agreat job over these three years
of this is something reallyspecial, Heather, and you really
should soak it up a little bit.
And I know you won't until it'sdone, but when it's done, take
some time to reflect.
(05:41):
And so I really tried to do thatafter the last three years and,
I always just lean on my husbandfor that'cause he is very good
at reminding me.
It's our partners are so big forthose things.
And those people, they just,they don't get talked about
enough of how important ourpartner is in our future and our
kids and how we're able to coachand, basically make nothing and.
(06:03):
Make a lot less than we could bemaking and work a lot more hours
than what our salary looks liketo do this and how much we love
it.
So that's great to hear.
Has your perspective changed onhow you attack a season?
Since we're at the beginning ofa new one.
Yeah, I think it's differentevery year, right?
(06:24):
I think it just depends what youhave.
I think one of the things thatwe talked about over the last
three, even though we had thesame cast of characters, we
really did talk about the ideathat every year is individual.
It's different, even with thesame people, it's not gonna feel
the same.
It's not gonna happen the same.
You can't expect the exact sameoutcomes with things.
And remembering that it's afresh journey and it, and that's
(06:45):
what it really is.
It's a journey.
You don't really know what'sgonna be thrown at you.
You don't know what adversityyou don't know what challenges.
And I think that just by thesimple fact of having won the
first year, we were all verydifferent people that spring the
hardest spring was actually thespring of 20.
Three.
And we really had to work on theidea of, okay, listen, yes, we
(07:08):
had all the success.
That doesn't change the way youprep to try to have success
again in a very different way,even though it's all the same
people.
So I think every year's a littlebit different.
I think we went into this yearsaying, my staff and I went in
saying, okay, we've had all thesuccess, but we have all these
young players now.
Yeah.
And how do we protect them?
(07:28):
That might be the biggest dealin all of this, is how do we
help them reframe success.
How do we help them think aboutgetting better every day and not
feel the weight or the burden ofwhat they're following, because
that could be very easy.
The people around you on campus,people that you run into at the
grocery store or at the gasstation, they have some
preconceived notions of whatthey expect right now.
(07:51):
And they don't always reframethat in, okay, we've got a lot
of freshmen and sophomores whoare gonna be doing this for the
first time.
How do we take that pressure onus?
Take it away from them.
Just let them get better day byday.
It's a challenge.
It is going to be a challenge.
I've said this way too manytimes on the show, but for me, I
always looked at every freshmangoing, if I can get them to the
(08:12):
point where they're stepping onthe court.
There's some authenticity.
They're not thinking about, Igotta do this, I gotta do that,
and they're just playing.
If I can do that in 18 monthswith them, I've had a successful
recruit.
Where are you at with where youexpect that freshman to be able
to say they get it.
We can push'em a little bitmore.
(08:33):
We can talk leadership with thema little bit more.
We can raise the bar a littlebit.
Where are you at with incomingkids?
I think you have to get to thepoint where there's a lot of
self-awareness for them.
Because youngsters are notalways very self-aware with how
they present, with what they dowith, okay, are we working as
hard as we really could?
Because they don't know.
They don't know what they'regetting into.
(08:54):
They think they do, but theydon't really.
And so I think the idea of oncethey become a little bit
self-aware of, oh, wait aminute, I probably could push a
little harder here, or I couldcommunicate more, or I could
work a little harder.
Or could do this one skillbetter.
I think that's when you, I feellike, okay, we've got them now.
They're understanding that it'sa process, that they're not
gonna be perfect upfront.
(09:15):
That it's about that tiny bit ofachievement.
It's not just physical.
It could be, Hey, I had a greatmental day today in practice.
I had a great effort day.
I had a great attitude day.
When they start buying intothose kind of things, the things
that they can actually control,energy, effort, attitude, then I
(09:35):
know we've got them.
I was such a hard ass as acoach.
I always had to remind myplayers, hear the words, not the
tone.
How do we get kids to do that?
How do we get kids to believethat it's okay to do that?
We talk about it a lot too, andI think it is a challenge.
I think sometimes really greatmessages are lost because the
(09:57):
tone is not maybe what oneperson wants to hear, right?
So I think we take attack itfrom both sides.
We literally just got done doinga meeting about this last week
that sometimes you have to hearthe message and not the
delivery.
I think we talk about, hey, getreally good at.
Understanding who the peoplearound you are and what they
might need from you and how youcan deliver a message that's
(10:17):
gonna be taken well.
But when we're in the heat ofbattle, someone might say
something that is very accurateand it might not feel good at
that moment.
That's okay.
We also need to learn how to bebetter receivers.
'Cause everyone talks about themessage, but we learn need to
learn to be better receivers andwe sift through information,
hear the really good informationin it.
(10:38):
And just let the delivery go.
And if it's bothering you a daylater after you've given it some
time to think about it, thenmaybe you talk to the person
about it.
But if it's not bothering youafter 24 hours, it's time to
just let it go.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah.
We talk about letting it go allthe time.
It's such an important messagebecause if you're not letting it
(10:58):
go you're never growing.
You just, you're constantly inthe shadows and you're not
understanding.
The light is just, it's righthere.
I just gotta take a step overhere to get to the light.
I want to talk about patiencefrom your perspective because I
never had seasons like you.
I was a college basketballcoach, but we went to the
national tournament a coupletimes and we won a couple
conference championships, andafter that really good season,
(11:24):
I'm like, okay, let's go.
I want to put the pedal on themetal and build off of where we
were.
And you've, and like youmentioned, you've got these new
kids coming in.
What is your patience like nowin these first three or four
weeks of the season?
First couple of games?
Do you have to remind yourselfto take a step back or are you
(11:46):
putting the pedal to the metaland doing other things behind
the scenes to help those kidsget caught up?
I think it's a little bit ofboth.
I think in general I'm morepatient now than I was early in
my career.
Yeah.
Because I think you just, morestudent athletes over the years
and you understand thateverybody's a little different
and their timeline's a littledifferent.
Yeah.
And some get it right way andsome don't, and whenever they
get it, that's a good thing.
(12:07):
Yeah.
And even if that's a year laterso I think my patience is
better.
I think we're being especiallypatient with this group because
they have so much to learn andagain, so much expectation that
I think we're trying to push ina healthy way but also really be
there to catch them when theystruggle.
Yeah.
And have lots of goodconversations about, hey, if
(12:29):
we're getting one 10th of apercent better each day at
something physical, mental,emotional, then we're getting
better.
And that's what this is about.
It's not about.
Being perfect.
It's not about you're not gonnawin everything.
You're gonna drop sets.
Even those teams the last coupleyears didn't lose a match.
They lost sets because nobody'sperfect.
(12:50):
And I think we wanna have a lotof patients with this group
while still demanding that theydo the things they can control
to the best of their ability.
But their skills may need tocatch up for a little while.
All right.
I'm gonna ask you a really hardquestion.
Don't hang up.
Don't give up on me, but I'mgonna ask you this anyways'cause
I think it's important and it'sa very positive question.
(13:12):
I don't want it to come beperceived as negative for your
career, for the program, for theschool.
What would a loss mean thisyear, like in, in a week and
that what would that mean?
Yeah, and we've talked aboutthat in this office, the whole
off season.
(13:32):
I think the, it will beoverreaction probably around us
outside of the program, insidethe program.
I don't think we're gonna reactat all.
I think we're gonna say, okay,this is part of learning.
That's right.
In some ways it's the bestteacher.
Yeah.
The best teachers to lose.
Yeah.
Because then start highlightingthe things that you've been
talking about and say, okay,this is why we talk about this.
(13:53):
And it's going to hit them in adifferent way than if they win a
game and play just soso.
Yeah.
We've talked a lot recentlyabout the idea that the only
opinions that matter are thepeople standing in the gym
looking each other in the eye,and that's the way it has to be
all the time.
But yes, your parents are gonnahave ideas about what we're
doing and how we're doing it.
(14:13):
People around campus will haveideas about, expectations of
what we should do and how weshould do it.
But in the end, the only, onlypeople that matter is standing
in the gym every single day.
Yeah.
And as long as we can look eachother in the eye and say we're
doing our very best, that's allthat matters.
It's funny I talked to WadeWilson a couple weeks ago, the
softball coach down at TexasLutheran, and they went, when
they won their nationalchampionship, they went like 50
(14:34):
and won.
And we just talked about thatone loss because it was fairly
early in the season.
And I go, what did that one lossdo for the rest of the career,
rest of the season?
He goes.
Because we hadn't given up a runin eight games, and I think they
lost the one game, like one tonothing.
It was ridiculous.
And he goes, but we were gettingsloppy.
We hadn't given up a run, but wewere starting to get sloppy.
(14:56):
We were starting to get a littletoo big a britches, and it
brought us down to earth that wecould lose, and that if we don't
bring it every day, we don'tprepare the right way.
If we're not thinking withsignificance, we're always
thinking the success is gonnahappen then.
It was great for us to feel thatearly.
You guys haven't had a lot ofthat, yeah.
(15:17):
Mar, back in November is thefirst time you lost two sets,
right?
Yeah.
How good it was tho losing thosetwo sets for your returners
coming back this year just toknow that they can take a punch
and get right back up.
I think it was good for them tosee that.
We don't have many returners.
We only have one.
Yeah.
(15:37):
An outside hitter and I thinkshe has a pretty good handle on
that.
But even the younger players whoweren't on the floor, I think
they know how good the peoplewere, they were training against
every single day in our practicegym.
Yeah.
And they understand that, okay,they are really good and they
had won how many matches in arow at that point.
But if you don't do things theway you need to.
Yes, you can lose.
(15:58):
I think it's a good reminder.
People forget that on the frontend of this whole streak, right?
We, the third week of season in22 went to Texas.
We went down, we played Trinity,and we played awful.
We made 56 errors in that match.
And honestly, that set the tonefor everything that came after,
(16:19):
because.
They walked outta there.
We had numerous players on thatroster who said, that's not
gonna happen again.
That is not happening again.
We've gotta be better.
And every single time somethingcame up that season where we
were a little sloppy, we weren'tdoing what we're supposed to be
doing, they would bring it up.
They were like, Hey, youremember down in Texas?
(16:40):
Oh yeah, let's clean this upbecause we do not wanna see that
again.
But they referenced that for avery long time, even into the
year after that.
Then by the time we got tomidway through the 23 season,
that group was so mature thatthey didn't even need to
reference that anymore.
It was like, Hey, let's bring itin.
This is not how we playvolleyball.
That's right.
And the greatest comment duringthat semi-final came after the
(17:04):
first two games, we lose, wetake a break and.
Senior outside, hit or Kennedy,Chrissy said, I'm sorry.
This is not the way this ends.
This is not the way we're doingthis.
We're going out our way, playingour game.
This is not how I'm ending mycareer, nor is it how any of you
are ending your career.
And I didn't need to say a word.
I didn't say anything becauseshe had already covered it.
(17:26):
Ownership, yeah, love.
Absolutely.
As a basketball coach, I wouldteach in practice I'd constantly
be talking about this, that in asingle possession there might be
30 to 40 things that we could dowrong or right.
How we set the screen, how werun off the screen, how we catch
the ball, the angle we take, Isee all that in volleyball.
The steps, the positioning,anticipation blocking together,
(17:49):
you know what, whatever that maybe, where our hands are.
Our hand position on blocks.
How much of that are youteaching every day and how hard
is that to teach at your level?
We are teaching it, but I thinkwe really focus more on playing
loose and free and playingreally aggressively.
(18:11):
I think anyone who's played usthe last couple years would say
we are very ferocious.
We are very aggressive.
We want them taking swings.
We really don't worry abouterrors very much at all.
Whether that's serving, hittingif they're being aggressive
while doing it and preppingproperly.
We just say nothing about theoutcome because I don't wanna be
outcome oriented anyway.
Let's be process oriented and dothings the right way.
(18:33):
I think what we've learned overtime is that in order to teach
skills, we break it away fromthe competitive piece.
We have really competitivepeople.
They don't like to lose.
And sometimes when you'relearning to do something better
or learning something new, youget worse at it before you get
better.
Yeah.
And so they don't want to do itduring six on six play in
practice because they don'twanna cost their team and they
(18:53):
don't wanna lose.
So we've learned to take theskill stuff away from the
competitive piece.
So we actually do small groupsessions during the week and we
have two or three people in it.
And that's where we work on thetechnique pieces.
Yeah, perfecting that handposition.
Perfecting your passingtechnique.
Perfecting your settingtechnique because there's no
scoreboard.
It's just you and I.
(19:13):
It's just you and Casey.
And let's do it right.
And you just simply keep workingon it there until it flows
naturally into their six on sixgame, and then it becomes part
of what they do, and they canreally just think about
competing and being aggressive.
Because when they're playing, wedon't want them thinking about
the technical things.
Players with too many thoughtsin their head do not play loose
(19:33):
and free.
So we try to remove as many ofthose thoughts as we can and let
them play very naturally.
Love that.
It's the goal for every coach isto get your team there.
And oftentimes we, and I was abig problem with this.
I'd get in the way, and it'ssometimes it's just getting the
heck outta the way is where yousee the more growth.
(19:54):
So I love that.
So is that more individualworkouts between classes or is
that early on in practice?
No, we just had a couple, wekinda have'em come in whenever
it fits their schedule.
And we just work through all thetechnical pieces of it.
We may film it so that they cansee what they're doing.
Love it.
But yeah it's hard to.
We say, when you're playing sixon six, we only want you
thinking about being reallycompetitive and maybe thinking
(20:17):
about some of the tacticalconcerns.
Who's in front of you, what dothey do?
But for yourself, let's justplay, let's just go.
How many times a week are youdoing that with a group of kids?
And then are you doing that allseason long?
We do it all season long.
We try to make sure every playergets one of those every single
week.
Because I think the other thingit does is you're gonna have
people who maybe aren't gettingmuch playing time.
(20:37):
Yeah.
And even in practice, they don'tplay as much as some other
people that way, every one ofour players knows that they're
getting our undivided attentionon them for this amount of time.
Just worried about them.
I think that goes a long way aswell.
How many kids do you carry?
Right now we're at 22.
I think we've been, last year wewere 25'cause we had the grad
students back.
(20:58):
So we were a little larger, butwe're about 22.
You graduated what?
Eight?
We actually graduated 10.
We had seven seniors and threegrad students.
That's right.
Gosh, that's crazy.
It's a lot of people.
Oh gosh.
That hurts my, just hurts myhead.
Thinking about replacing 10 kidslike that's great.
We do, it's interesting becauseI think the younger players.
(21:18):
Last spring started to figureout, oh wow.
We already know how to play at ahigh level because we played
against those people every day.
It was a realization that Idon't think they had until after
maybe we played some of ourspring competition.
Yeah.
And they realized, oh, we'rewait.
We're pretty good and we knowhow to do this.
Yeah.
I'm like, yeah.
'cause you were playing againstreally good people every single
day for the last year or two,depending on your age.
(21:41):
The idea of.
We're the only ones that arebeating the national champions
every week.
That's pretty good thought.
I remember distinctly the daylast season when the youngsters
'cause we'll sometimes go splitsquad, sometimes we'll go stack
squad.
We do some of both.
I distinctly remember the daythat they beat the first team
because there was justjubilance, there was just
(22:02):
celebration.
My gosh, that must have beenawesome.
We just did that.
I'm like, you absolutely didjust do that.
And that's amazing.
That is so great.
And again, you didn't have thatloss or that you had that set
streak, so that must have beenhuge for your starters.
Yeah they they took any kind ofa loss very hard.
That group did not like to loseat anything.
(22:24):
We have a lot of insanelycompetitive people in that
group.
Let's go back talking aboutthat.
What do you typically play in agame?
Do you get to 10?
Sometimes I would say theaverage is probably 9, 9, 9
players.
So that's thir 12, 13 kids thataren't seeing the floor.
You talk about having thatone-on-one once a week with
them.
(22:46):
What does that look like inpractice?
Those 11, 13, 11, 12 that aren'tseeing a lot of court time and
games?
Where is your focus?
How are you being proactive?
How much are you relying on yourstaff for that development with
them?
Where, what's that look like foryou?
I think it's a little of all ofthe above.
We've got a great staff.
I Casey Dale's my associate headcoach.
(23:06):
He's been here for 12 years.
So we've worked together a verylong time.
He's doing what I had done.
Previously,'cause I was here 15as an assistant and an associate
head coach.
And then we have Aaron Smith isour assistant.
She's come in the last twoyears.
Really nice having her.
'cause she's much closer totheir age.
Yeah.
So they have someone who'srecently played and she gets it.
We've got great studentassistants and we use all,
(23:27):
everybody to try to help that.
I would say it depends on whatpart of practice we're in.
So when we start practice, we'vegot everyone doing everything.
And then I think as we gettowards the end of our practice,
we'll do more six on six basethings.
So you might have 14 to 16players out there at any given
time.
Maybe you're using some servingsubs and we do some different
things but we always have asecond court going.
(23:49):
We have a second court overthere where at any time, anybody
who's off at that any givenmoment.
Can grab a coach, go down thereand work on some things.
That's right.
Work on some of their passing,serving, hitting, whatever it
might be.
So we've got people coming backand forth between the two courts
pretty often.
And I think we try to get everysingle player into that six on
six at some point through it.
(24:10):
And whether that is, Hey, we'regonna go with the top 14 to 16
in the first game here, thenwe're gonna play another game
and we're gonna switch it up.
And we're gonna get everybody inthere.
So we really do make a concertedeffort to do that.
Certainly some people get morethan others but I think the
people who don't get as muchhave the opportunity to go with
a coach to that other court allthe time.
And we encourage that.
(24:31):
We make sure again, that they'regetting that individual work
during the week with us, so theyfeel like that, their game's
moving forward and that they'regetting our undivided attention.
I am gonna ask you, I'm gonnabreak my rule and I'm gonna ask
you a recruiting question inthis segment.
'cause I think it flows wellwhen you know you're gonna carry
22.
And you, every year you have apretty good idea of what that
(24:53):
nine 10 eleven's probably gonnalook like or what you hope it's
gonna look like or what itshould look like.
Is it affecting how yourrecruiting.
In terms of I don't need tobring in a kid that is gonna get
me 200 kills this year, or needsto step in and be a starter
(25:15):
right away.
Is it changing your thoughtprocess about how you're
evaluating a high schooler interms of the time you might have
to develop them?
Maybe a little bit.
Maybe a little bit.
It probably depends how good thepeople in their position are,
right?
I think, yeah.
If you have the opportunity atany point to get a player you
think could be in an allAmerica, right?
(25:37):
You go regardless.
You go get them, period.
Because my job in the end is tomake this team as good as it can
be.
But I think we do, I think we'revery honest with them when they
come in for their recruitingvisit though too.
If we don't think someone wouldsee floor time for a couple
years and it could bedevelopmental for year one and
year two, we tell them that.
They have to know that coming inso that it's not a surprise.
(25:58):
We never guarantee anyone astarting position, so there's
not a single person on our teamwho's ever come in for a visit
and said, oh yeah, by the way,you'll start with we, we simply
don't do that.
Yeah.
So even those very best recruitswho we think can compete
immediately, we're saying, Hey,you can come in and compete.
We think you can be verycompetitive from the start, but
you have to do the right thingsand the rest is up to you.
(26:19):
Yeah.
I'm just I'm more wondering, yousee a six four baby giraffe.
And you're like, oh my gosh,this, we can't teach that this
kid can't, can barely walk andchew gum at the same time.
But I see just a glimmer of whatthey could become.
Is That's a chance you get.
We go after them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because there are certain thingsthat coaches can't teach.
I can't teach someone to be sixfour.
(26:40):
That kind of length and abilitytakes time to develop.
You're, they're usually notstrong enough and that's why
they don't control their limbsas well as they need to.
And the strength andconditioning piece here is what
we do.
Some, we do it really well, andwe always have, so we know we
can get that person stronger.
We had a starter on the floorlast year that was exactly that.
Just all arms and legs that wenteverywhere when she came in.
(27:02):
And as she got stronger, shestarted to get good.
So yeah, certainly we have roomfor some developmental kind of
players who bring somethingunique to the table that we just
need to uncover and help getstrong and do some other things.
It's, it was, it's almost.
Almost more fun to have a coupleof those kids because they don't
have, they don't havemisconceptions.
(27:22):
They haven't been taught thewrong way.
It's a clean sheet and if theyhave a work ethic, you can get
them being absolutely muchgreater than where their
potential may have been beforethey got to you.
Absolutely.
And when they do get it, thatlight bulb moment is one of the
best feelings in the world for acoach.
I, you're like, ah, she got it.
It's right there.
We had one of those the otherday in the practice gym with one
(27:43):
of our youngsters, and it feelsso good when the light bulb goes
on for them and for us.
And yeah, those are fun.
It's fun to watch them developand get better.
For sure.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
Walk me through practiceplanning.
When does it start?
Yeah, we, what does it looklike?
We get together about 11 o'clockeach day.
Usually Casey and I,occasionally Erin will be here,
(28:04):
sometimes she won't but Caseyand I get together at about 11
and we let our players know.
That's the time we practiceplan.
So if something comes up, you'renot feeling well, you've got a
meeting with a prof.
Let us know so that we can planappropriately for who's gonna be
there at the beginning ofpractice and who might be a
little bit late.
I think we sit down, we think interms of the whole week, what do
we need to get done through thewhole week?
And we'll make lists on theboard where are we incorporating
(28:26):
these things that we need towork on.
Usually, we'll alternate days ofStack Squad, split squad, and
we'll go every other day or so.
We'll also go maybe every otherday or every couple days with
are we gonna focus more today onthe point scoring part of the
game, the serving, the defense,the transition, the blocking
versus maybe the next day we'refocusing on the receive game,
(28:47):
the passing, the offense, thefirst swing offense.
We alternate those by day, butthey know we're gonna have a
focus every single day.
Yeah.
We always do a pre-practice.
I throw a pre-practice on theboard right after we're done.
Doing our practice planning whenthey get to the gym so that they
don't sit around and just talk.
They have something, they knowit's gonna start at eight
minutes before the hour.
(29:07):
This is what we want you to do,and they know how to get out
there, get going so that whenthe buzzer rings and it is four
o'clock, if we're practicing atfour, we're gonna go.
Yeah.
And they're already ready to gocompletely.
But that's how we structurethings.
I think it's very, it isrepetitive.
There are things we will doevery single day.
We pass and serve every singleday.
(29:28):
Of course, it doesn't soundexciting.
No one, it isn't.
It isn't exciting.
It's the mundane part oftraining that you have to do if
you wanna be great.
And we try to give themdifferent focuses each day to
keep it fresh, have the onething they're thinking about and
working on.
Because let's be honest, youpass and serve for 20 minutes to
half an hour.
It's not exciting.
(29:48):
It's not exciting kind of stuff,but we have to find a way to do
it well because at all levels ofvolleyball, if you can't pass
and serve, you really can'tplay.
See you later if you can't passserve.
So find a way new way to make itexciting.
Score it differently.
Give them a different focus forthe day.
Give them something to reallythink about.
Servers.
We don't want them going backthere and just being mindless.
(30:10):
And just throwing serves inplay.
All right.
I want you to hit this today.
I want you to go sidelines andseams today.
I want you to go deep and thenshort.
Just give them some things tofocus on each time we do it, so
it keeps it a little moreexciting.
I'm gonna go back to you talkingabout making sure they play
loose and free and they'reconfident and aggressive.
You were such a good player.
You've had such great success.
(30:32):
When you've got a kid that doessomething, a way that.
Just doesn't catch your eye.
How they serve, how they jump,serve, how they flat serve, how
they block, and it's differentthe way you know it.
In your soul that works, is thathard for you to let them be who
they are or do you let them failat what they're doing and then
(30:54):
say, Hey let's try a differentway.
Where are you at with that?
Both.
Okay.
So I don't wanna turn.
I feel very strongly, I don'twant my players to look like
robots, right?
They do not need to all lookexactly the same.
Their bodies work a littledifferently.
And if they have a technique andit works at this level we're
okay with that.
(31:14):
We'll let them look a littledifferent than somebody else and
the way they do something.
For instance, we don'tnecessarily do big swing
blocking, but if someone'sreally good at it and they get
the job done with it.
I don't think we're gonna worryabout it too much.
I think we gently say, Hey, whatif we tweak this a little bit to
someone who maybe is doing theskill and what they're doing
(31:34):
isn't as good as it could be?
I think we'll say, Hey, listen,what, why don't we try this on
this time?
Let's just go in the gym andjust do it and see how it goes.
Yeah.
And I think as they get inthere,'cause I, what I don't
wanna do is make them feel likewhat they're doing is wrong or
it's bad in any way.
Let's just tweak this.
Let's see if we can get evenbetter at this.
(31:55):
And that's how we attack thatkind of stuff.
And some of that's with serving.
We've been doing that with aserver recently where I'll just
say, how about you try thistime?
Let's see how it goes.
And she'll do it.
And how did that feel?
It felt different.
It's going to, it's gonna, yeah.
What about trying it again?
And actually she's doing thatskill really well.
Now that's great.
But it was a little tweak.
It wasn't an overhaul in anyway.
(32:15):
Yeah.
But again that's the great thingabout being a coach is when that
light bulb goes off, when youcan make just a little bit of
tweak and all of a sudden itstarts working the best example
I can give of that, we had aplayer years ago actually played
on the first championship team.
In 2004.
She had a serve that I thinkmost people would've changed
because she would take the bowland wind it up and toss it for a
jump serve.
(32:36):
It just looked so different fromeverybody else's.
She was really consistent andreally good at it.
So that player ended up Ibelieve in her maybe in oh five,
that player, we were down nineto 14 in a fifth game.
She went back to the line toserve.
We literally was like, andpeople were like, oh, you let
her jump surf?
(32:56):
Absolutely.
This is what she does.
This is the moment this is for,and she literally served us
through a 1614 win with thatserve that didn't look like
anybody else's because she wasalready really good at it.
So there was really no reason tochange it.
Yeah muscle memory andconsistency can go a long way,
can't I?
Yeah it's about how repeatableis the technique they're using,
(33:16):
and if it is super repeatableand they're successful, then.
I don't think we need to changeit.
How do you handle a kid that'sstruggling in a game Because you
want them to play loose andfreeze.
You don't want them to feelthey're gonna get yanked if they
miss a server or two.
How do you handle that kid thatmaybe is hit three kills in the
net in a row, how, why does yourmind work on the sideline when
(33:39):
you're seeing a kid that'sstruggling a little bit?
I think, first of all, I thinkwe talked to our players about
the idea that they win jobs.
To go on the court in thepractice gym.
Yeah.
We're not into the gamer thing.
Let's be a practicer.
Yeah.
And let's practice really wellevery single day.
We get lots of stats on it, weget lots of data.
We do not have a quick hook.
We do not have a quick hook withpeople at all.
(34:01):
There's a reason they're outthere and we do let them work
through some things sometimesand that can get a little ugly
once in a while.
And I just don't think pullingpeople in and out does a lot for
confidence.
Now granted, I think there aretimes when we absolutely need to
make a sub, right?
We need to make a sub, we needto get somebody else in there.
But I wanna make sure that whenthat person comes off the floor,
(34:22):
they sit next to me, come sitnext to me, let's talk.
Hey, listen, you were strugglingwith this.
Let's go down to the end of thebench, do some deep breathing,
get yourself together and beready to go again.
'cause we may need you herereally soon.
Then the next game, if that's astarter that we've had, we'll
probably start them again thenext game.
Yeah.
You might save them in a littlebit of snippets and then you
talk to the person who went in,Hey listen, really good job way
(34:45):
to go in there and do your job.
Your job is to come in, settlethings down and you did it
extremely well.
Be ready if we need you again.
But they know that just becausethey went in and did wow, it
doesn't mean they're the starterall of a sudden.
'cause that's earned over timein the practice gym.
It's what you do over many weeksof time, not what you do to just
today or tomorrow.
And that works if that messageis there every day, if it's
(35:07):
there from the beginning.
I think we try to, we talk aboutover communicating.
Yeah.
Because I really do think in theabsence of communication,
players usually think the worst.
Coaches usually think the best.
Oh, she's fine.
Coaches think, oh, she's fine.
The player thinks, oh, theythink I'm awful.
The truth is in the middlesomewhere.
Yeah.
And so we wanna make sure thatin all of those instances, we're
(35:28):
communicating with them why didwe do what we did?
How they should maybe canreframe that and think about
that for the next time thatsituation comes up.
We wanna make sure that we givethem ways to deal with it.
Ways to process it.
I don't think I've seen, whenI've watched your games, I don't
feel like you in set make a lotof big changes rotation wise.
(35:48):
It's typically between setswhere you'll say, we, let's give
her a little bit of a break.
Let's give her a set off.
Is that, am I seeing that right?
Is that typical?
I think that's, that would beaccurate probably over the last
three years with that group.
Yeah.
I think that maybe with adifferent group, a little bit
more of that.
Yeah.
If you have to.
But I do think we want people tohave the opportunity to struggle
a little bit and work throughit.
(36:09):
Because otherwise, how do theylearn to do it?
If you pull them out every time,they start to struggle a little
bit.
You have your rotational limitsthat I never had as a basketball
coach.
I could pull a kid for a minuteand have say, all right, get
back in there.
You don't have that ability.
You only have so many subs.
Yeah.
And so you have to let somepeople work through some things
sometimes too.
Yeah, and you've gotta be smartabout when you're subbing in and
when you're subbing out andwhere they're at in the
rotation.
So that just with a daughterthat's played club volleyball
(36:31):
for the last six years, I'mjust.
I figure, I think I'm justlearning and I feel like I'm
just figuring out how rotationswork.
And you think ahead too, right?
Yeah.
If I'm going to run outta subs,who am I leaving in and who am I
getting out?
You gotta think about that alittle bit because you don't
want that five seven up there inthe front row, what you got.
No.
And even the best coaching jobyou do, it does happen
sometimes, but you try not to,is the mindset for you, if I'm
(36:55):
gonna, if I'm out of rotations,I want to make sure I'm leaving
big in front, is that priorityone?
Sometimes.
Sometimes, yeah.
Especially if they have at leastsome experience and ability to
go back row at some point.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like the last couple years, ifwe were gonna run outta subs, we
were most likely to live leaveAudrey Muth.
'cause we knew she could go backthere and serve and play
(37:16):
defense.
We were most likely to leaveLily Polan in because she could
do the same.
Okay.
And Lily reminds me all the timethat the few times I've run
outta subs and she had to goback and serve, she served two
ACEs.
So she'll never let that down.
What more do you need to gocoach?
Two ACEs.
That's right you, you yourimpression I get from you is
you're tougher in nails, heartis stone, but a big heart.
(37:38):
When do you get emotional?
Oh, I think I get emotional whenI see them have success.
When you see the joy on theirfaces, whether that's daily in
the practice gym, or whetherthat's after a big win or
success elsewhere, right?
They come in and they say, Ijust did the most amazing job on
my presentation because you'rewatching people.
(38:00):
In a time of their lives whenthey're figuring out who they
are, what they're about, andwhat they stand for.
And when you see the light bulbgo on, things happen that you
know is gonna carry them intotheir later life with lots of
success, that's when I get alittle bit of emotion.
So when I watch them walk acrossthe graduation stage definitely
get emotional because you thinkabout who they were when they
(38:22):
came in.
Then see who they are when theyleave, and how much they've
developed and changed.
That's just that kicks intogear.
A little bit of tears for me.
It's hard because I don't cryoften.
Yeah.
The older I get when I, theolder I get, I the biggest, the
bigger cry baby I've become, soI cry more now than I probably
did in my first 45, 50 years oflife.
(38:43):
That's, it's just, you have tobe so tough for your kids and
you have to be so strong foryour kids, and you want them to
understand how we play and howwe react.
But there's that time where it'sjust, it's hard not to be
emotional.
Agreed.
You've raised great.
I agree wholeheartedly.
And they're doing well for you,coach, you'd be you, whether you
wanna admit it or not, you'vebecome the standard for Division
(39:05):
three volleyball.
Do you feel that pressure?
Do you welcome the idea thatyou're the teacher that
everybody wants to learn fromyou?
How do you feel about havingthat over you?
I don't know.
I guess I go back and forth onthat.
I think that we all have thatpart of us that is like me.
(39:26):
Who am I?
I think that's normal.
I think I had the benefit ofhaving Larry Bach be my mentor,
who is in my mind, one of thebest coaches who's ever coached
the game.
And watching how he handledhimself was amazing.
Always very humble, always verymodest, always.
Knowing that he didn't knoweverything and wanting to learn
(39:46):
more.
So I've guessed if I can helpsomebody learn I wanna take on
that and wear it like a badge ofhonor.
But at the same time, I stillfeel all the time, like I have
so much to learn that when youhave conversations with people,
I learn as much from them asthey do for me.
I guarantee it.
And that's the place I kindalive in.
That you should still wannalearn, you should still wanna
(40:07):
get better, you should still bedeveloping.
And along the way, if you canhelp anybody, then that's
golden.
That's wonderful.
Yeah.
When you look at the landscapeof youth volleyball, you know
that the club volleyball and thegames these kids are playing in
the length of the season, do youfeel like you have a voice now
(40:28):
to help?
Make that healthier?
Is that something I try?
Is that something you want todo?
I think it's a huge deal.
Yes, I do wanna have a voicesaying, we need to make sure
that some of these players getat least a couple weeks off.
Right now many of them aregetting no time off.
Nothing.
We had nothing ever and'causethings are crossing over one
(40:52):
another.
We talk about it here all thetime.
The way we coach the game hashad to change because we get
freshmen in here with overuseinjuries.
Used to be years ago, we onlygot juniors and seniors who
would get some overuse things asthey got a little bit older.
We have so many players comingin here with shoulders that are
already not great with backs,lower backs for defensive
(41:13):
players that are not greatbecause they are playing on
concrete with this much sportcourt over top of it.
Every single weekend.
Yeah.
This spring playing five and sixmatches.
They are going straight from theend of club season at nationals
and coming home and doing opengyms with their high schools
immediately.
Then having club p, tryouts theweek after that, we don't feel
(41:34):
it's very healthy.
I say I will say that to anybodywho will listen at any time
because I think we're doing'em adisservice.
I think that they play the gamebetter than they used to.
But they're sometimes physicallyand mentally a mess.
They are because they just havenot gotten that recovery time.
And I know in our program wetalk about recovery a lot, and
(41:59):
not just physical recovery,emotional recovery, mental
recovery because everyone wastalking about how they train.
Do we talk about recoveryenough?
Do we teach them how to recover?
Do we teach them that it's okayto have other things that they
like to do for downtime?
We think it's so important.
It's one of the things in thisprogram we always take off
(42:19):
Sundays, we do nothing onSundays ever.
Yeah.
Because we feel like that's aday they should be able to do
whatever they wanna do.
And they need it and it'shealthy.
And if they have other thingsthat they like to do, art.
We've had artists in thisprogram.
We have people who like to sing.
We have people who dance.
One of our best players is adancer and she's continued to
dance during these four years.
(42:40):
That's great.
Because it's what makes herhappy and it keeps her in a
really great place.
And feeling really good aboutwhat she's doing and how she's
doing it.
Yeah.
Anyone who listen, I will saythat too because I think it's a
huge deal right now.
And I imagine you'd say the samething about multi-sport athletes
and you want that kid that'splaying.
Volleyball, basketball,softball, right?
(43:01):
Yes.
Yes.
And we, that's what we just had,if everyone was for the last
three, four years, talking aboutthe three players we that just
graduated last year, who weregrad students?
Olivia Kennedy, and Skye.
They were all my multi-sportathletes In high school.
Yeah, all of them.
And they were good at multiplethings, and they didn't have a
ton of overuse injuries whenthey came in here.
(43:22):
We definitely see more overuseinjuries from people who have
only played volleyball.
Yeah.
It's every study for the last 30years.
Makes it clear there's just nocross training.
How do we fix these clubs thathave gotten so big?
They've got eight courts intheir facility.
They've got 24 teams, 12 yearsup.
They got 24 teams.
They can't find five goodcoaches, let alone 24.
(43:47):
How do we fix that?
Because a lot of that burnout, alot of that bad technique, a lot
of that unhealthy kids that aregetting burned out and not
playing anymore, it starts withcoaches that really have no
business coaching, let alone aseven month season.
Yeah.
It's a challenge.
I think it's a real challengeschedule.
(44:11):
The, I think as soon as the highschool coaches started getting
less time with'em.
'cause let's be honest, a highschool coach is not in it to
make money.
A high school coach is in itbecause they care about the
kids.
At least that's what I've seenover the years.
Yeah.
And they have them less andless, and the clubs have them
more and more.
And if you are lucky enough tohave a great club coach, then
great.
You're getting good training,you're getting someone who cares
(44:32):
about you as an individual.
But I think your point is a verygood one that.
It's hard to find five goodcoaches and if you need 30,
where do they come from?
And what kind of training are wegiving them?
I think that's the biggestthing, right?
You can't find 30, mastercoaches, you're not gonna find
that.
No, but how are we trainingthose young coaches coming into
(44:54):
clubs?
How are we teaching them notabout the game?
Because they've probably playedand they've done some things and
everyone wants to focus on let'steach them to teach skills.
But how do you get.
An understanding of how to dealwith youngsters.
Yeah.
How to be positive with them.
How to help them learn in a waythat's beneficial to them.
(45:15):
How to communicate with them.
I think all of those things arevery challenging and missing,
and we may have to in some ofthose larger clubs, if they have
a master coach, that'sphenomenal.
I think that is much needed insome of the bigger clubs to have
a master coach who goes to allthe practices, not some, all of
them, and can say to someone,Hey, here's a better way to say
(45:38):
that.
Yeah.
Or Here's a better way to thinkabout this.
That's right.
'cause that's the only way youngcoaches learn too and we're
doing them a disservice becausethey don't always have a mentor,
somebody who can help themthrough those early years.
And we all need that when we'reyoung coaches.
That's how you learn.
I just see such a lack ofpreparation.
They don't know how to prepare.
Not for a practice.
Yeah.
Teaching how to do a practiceplan, right?
(46:00):
Yeah.
Yeah.
'cause once you know how toprepare, saying, okay, this is
what we're gonna get done today.
This is how we're gonna teach itthe right way.
And this is what I want my toneto be today.
This is what I want my energy tobe today.
Go beyond that.
How do we, how many reps arethey getting?
Exactly.
How are we controlling the reps?
Making sure that some of thesepeople are not taking hundreds
(46:21):
and hundreds of reps when theydon't need to.
That's right.
Such a huge thing.
Whenever you wanna write a bookor do a master class, you just
let me know.
I'm in to help you with itbecause, yeah, I just talked to
Susie Enquist and, it was just afire hose of she's just like
you, she's got all thisinformation and she's just
trying to figure out, how do Ihelp more coaches?
(46:41):
How do I help more kids behealthy?
And it's so hard for you becauseyou've got these 22 kids in your
own family that you're, you'vegotta put your energy into.
But we need more of those masterteachers and motivators.
We need them in front.
Of these high school coaches andclub coaches just to say, Hey
there's a healthier way to dothis.
And there's, and it is achallenge too, right?
(47:03):
You almost feel like our newlyretired coaches are the ones we
need.
Because this job has gotten somuch busier over the years, I
find with each passing year, Ihave less and less time to do
the volleyball pieces becauseyou're spending more time on
other things that.
Good.
They're good things that arebeing added in.
Yeah.
But they do take a lot of timeFor sure.
(47:24):
Podcasts with me.
Yeah.
Why not?
I really appreciate it.
You're welcome.
I'm gonna do a little rapid firewith you.
I wanna do a little fun just sopeople Okay.
Throw you a little bit better.
Is there a match that comes tomind when you.
When you think about yourcoaching history, it doesn't
have to be a nationalchampionship, but is there a
(47:44):
match where you kinda wake upand you remember and you think
about a match or a set more thanmost?
The 22 championship.
Yeah.
Because it's not when some, itwas not when we were expected to
win.
Yeah.
And the way they handlethemselves.
From after we lost in Texasuntil that championship.
That's it.
I was a mess after that match.
(48:05):
I was like, that just happened.
Wow.
That just happened.
And the cool part was Larry Bachwas there and literally the
first person that I see after myteam is him.
That's awesome.
And that, that just, thatbrought me to tears.
It would've had to been, oh,that's so great.
Oh, what was, look on his face.
He is so low key all the timethat he was like good job,
(48:27):
Heather.
Thanks.
And I threw my arms around andgave him a big hug, but he is
always very low key.
Cool.
He sat and hid up in the standswith my husband.
That's cool.
All right the junior OUTTA gymis rocking.
What's your pre-match ritual?
Do you have something?
Mine?
Yeah.
I'm so boring.
I'm so boring.
I sit in my office longer thanthe rest of the staff usually
(48:49):
goes out before me.
I'll sit in my office here alittle bit, take a few deep
breaths, get my charts together.
And then I actually.
In our gym, we play on the wrongside of the gym because years
ago there was an advantage tostarting over there.
'cause we had windows up top.
Okay.
So we're on the wrong side ofthe gym actually.
So I walk under the bleachers soas not to see anybody, and get
(49:10):
to the other side of the gym.
That's my.
My prematch.
Yeah.
I would typically walk out abouttwo minutes before the game was,
I do, I'm really low key.
Yeah.
I'm very low key.
So I go under the bleachers andpop out on the other side right
at the bench.
I, same way.
Who's tougher to coach?
Heather the player, or Heather?
The coach today.
Oh, Heather, the player.
(49:32):
I was very stubborn.
Very stubborn.
Do God bless Larry Bach?
Do you remind yourself of that?
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
And when you get those stubborn,although I will say some of the
best players are very stubborn.
That's right.
They are.
'cause they know they're good.
Yep.
But yeah, I do.
When someone's beingparticularly ordinary, I'm like,
yeah, I didn't have to coachmyself, so that's good.
That's right.
(49:52):
One word your players would useto describe you.
Boy that's changed over theyears.
I think two years ago theywould've used a very intent,
like intense.
Yeah.
And now I would say, I thinkthey would say consistent.
Very good.
I think I'm very consistent,obviously.
Yes.
Favorite away Jim to compete inand why?
Ooh.
I.
Today I love playing at Hope.
(50:15):
I lo I love playing at Hopebecause I love him playing
places where you get a lot of alot of fans who don't like you
very much.
Those are the best places.
Years ago I just said Watch u.
Yeah, great kids.
'cause there's always a greatrivalry between the teams and
that place Got.
Packed and nasty.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I wanna see that.
Did you play hope this year?
(50:35):
We played them last year.
That's, we actually went, wedon't play them this year, but
we went up there last year andit was a great environment.
It was a really fun collegiatematch.
Yeah.
And it's a beautiful gym too.
Yeah.
You and Becky have similarapproaches.
That's a battle when you guys goat it.
Which opponent has pushed you tobe your best?
Which, is there an opponent thatyou've faced over the years that
you feel like.
(50:56):
Has pushed you to do some thingsdifferently or you've learned?,
I think that's changed with whatwhat era we're talking about.
I think there was a Wash U erathat pushed us to be better as a
program.
'cause we had to be, to beatthat.
I think then we went through alittle Emory era where they
pushed us pretty darn hard.
I think there was a littleHopkins era there and I think
the hope, I think hope isabsolutely there.
(51:18):
I think we knew we had to raiseour game.
That's awesome.
Coach.
Thank you so much for doingthis.
I had a blast talking to you.
I could talk to you all day longand I know our audience, who's,
it's a lot of families, it's alot of high school coaches that
listen to this so much value.
Thanks for doing this.
Oh, you're so welcome.
Thank you for having me.
That was Junior outta collegehead coach Heather Pavlik.
(51:41):
What stands out most to me aboutHeather isn't just the three
straight national championshipsor even the back-to-back perfect
seasons, it's the way she leads.
Her.
Players know she's gonna pushthem to their limits, but they
also know she cares deeply aboutwho they are off the court.
That combination of toughnessand compassion is so rare.
(52:01):
It's why she epitomizessignificant leadership.
She's developing champions involleyball, but more
importantly, she's preparingyoung women for life and we're
not done.
Part two of my conversation withCoach Pavlik drops on September
15th on significant recruiting.
In that episode, she's gonnatalk about what she looks for in
a recruit, how parents can bestsupport their daughters in this
(52:24):
recruiting process, and whydivision three opportunities
like Jutta can be absolutelytransformational.
Like my D three experience was.
Before you go.
Make sure you subscribe.
Hit that favorite button andshare this podcast with somebody
who needs it.
That support means the world tous.
It's how this show continues togrow.
(52:45):
And don't forget, you can findmy book significant Recruiting
the Playbook for prospectivecollege athletes.
My brand new recruits journalseries where you can pick up
your recruiting journal forbaseball, basketball, softball,
volleyball, and nowsoccer@coachmattrogers.com.
Each one of these journals isbuilt to keep athletes
(53:05):
organized, confident, and readyfor the next step in their
journey.
Until next time, stay focused.
Stay humble.
And keep leading withsignificance.
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