December 19, 2025 • 40 mins
🎙️ Building Culture, Joy, and Sustained Success in NCAA Division III Volleyball 🏐
In this episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, Matt Rogers sits down with Karrah Davis, Head Volleyball Coach at the University of Dubuque and one of the great young coaches in NCAA Division III.
After watching her coach live this past season, Matt was struck by the identity of her program — disciplined yet joyful, gritty yet strategic, competitive yet deeply connected. That identity has translated into results:
🔥 50–15 record in her first two seasons
🏆 Back-to-back NCAA Division III National Tournament appearances
🎯 Two trips to the Round of 32
But this conversation goes beyond wins and losses.
Karrah shares what it’s like to lead a program she once played for, how she builds trust with her staff and athletes, and why culture, consistency, and care are the foundation of sustained success. From her love for her staff to the joy of leading dynamic young women, Karrah offers thoughtful insight into what it really takes to build a program that lasts.
If you’re a coach, administrator, or aspiring leader in college athletics, this episode is packed with lessons on leadership, culture, and significance.
🔗 Learn more about Coach Karrah Davis:
👉 https://udspartans.com/staff-directory/karrah-davis/104
🎧 Listen to this episode and explore more coaching conversations:
👉 https://coachmattrogers.com/podcast/
Learn more and connect with Matt Rogers here: https://linktr.ee/coachmattrogers
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio, and all your favorite podcast platforms.
Did you like what you heard and want more?
New Podcasts every week. Remember to subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome back to The SignificantCoaching Podcast.
I'm your host, Matt Rogers.
Today's guest is someone I hadthe pleasure of watching Coach
Live this past season.
Her team was disciplined butplayed with joy.
They were gritty, but stayedtrue to their strategy.
And they played hard, but alwaysfor each other.
Kara Davis is the headvolleyball coach at the
(00:31):
University of Dubuque, and in ashort amount of time, she has
firmly established herself asone of the great young coaches
in all of NCAA division threevolleyball in her first two
seasons as head coach.
Kara has led her program to a 50and 15 record back to back NCAA
Division three nationaltournament appearances, and two
(00:52):
trips to the round of 32.
But what makes her story socompelling isn't just the
results, it's how she's achievedthem.
Karen knows this program fromthe inside out.
She was an honorable mention AllAmerican as a player at UD
before serving as a graduateassistant, then an assistant
coach, then an associate headcoach.
(01:14):
And now for the past twoseasons, she leads the Spartans
as their head coach.
Without a doubt, she bleedsSpartan Blue.
In this conversation, we talkabout building trust, sustaining
success, the love she has forher staff, and the joy of
leading dynamic young women.
And we also dig deep into whatit really takes to build a
(01:37):
program that lasts.
Whether you're a coach, anadministrator, or someone
aspiring to lead at the nextlevel.
There is a lot to learn fromCoach Davis.
She is impressive, to say theleast.
Let's get into it.
Here's my conversation withCoach Kara Davis.
Coach Davis, can we just startwith 50 and 15, 5, 0 and 15 two
(02:03):
national tournament bursts inyour first two years?
What the heck?
How do you do that in your firsttwo years?
I think was set up with greatsuccess for my predecessor, but
it also really helped to havethose.
Really trusting relationshipswith the returners.
And I didn't change a ton ofthings systematically or even
(02:27):
like with our culture.
So I think it was a reallysmooth transition.
And I just have some reallygreat athletes and humans on the
team that know how to work hardand like just, yeah the amount
of work that they put in and theoff season is just incredible.
And I think that's really thereason why we had such success
the last two years.
(02:47):
I appreciate your humility andit's always nice when a coach
leaves and leaves you a nicehand, right?
But I got to watch you playearly this fall.
And I was so impressed with thewomen on your team and how they
cared about each other and thegrit and the toughness that they
(03:08):
played.
And you got a great environmentthere.
Yeah.
It was so great to see.
The students come out andsupport you, and you had a great
crowd.
You had a great facility.
What's that been like startingthis journey at a place like
University of Dubuque and justthe community around you?
Yeah.
I have been involved at theUniversity of Dubuque for the
(03:30):
last 10 years, so it's been.
The community aspect is thereason that I've stayed for so
long, and just the people hereare incredible and I think we
have a lot of resources thatallow us to be successful and
continue to push forward.
So yeah, that's really a hugereason why I stay here.
And it's just so exciting to bein a place where.
(03:52):
The athletic department, justlike the students here and the
coaches, they just get it andreally wanna support each other.
So that's been really fun to seethat shift and grow over the
last 10 years, that support andthe atmosphere we get in the gym
just.
Is a lot of the other studentathletes and some great
community members as well, but alot of the student athletes just
show up and they know what eachother are going through in the
(04:15):
day-to-day process and what ittakes to be a D three athlete.
So I think, yeah, it's a reallyspecial environment and
something we're really gratefulto have.
I got into the sergeant, and Ihate getting into arguments
ever, but I got in this argumentwith a high school coach and I
didn't really intend to.
I talked about how valuable itis to have played.
(04:36):
At a certain level where you gotcoached really well.
I think it's, I really thinkit's really hard to be a really
good high school, let alone agood college coach if you
weren't a player that got to becoached hard and be taught.
How to play the game.
Were, yeah.
Sit with that.
Because I know you were a gradat Dubuque.
You were a heck of a player atDubuque.
(04:57):
You got that full journey of aneducation these last 10, 12
years.
How important was that to youbecoming the person you are
today as a head coach?
Yeah, I think it's has so muchto do with who I am today.
Just the lessons I learned as aplayer and as a young coach and
(05:18):
still I'm learning something newevery single day and I hope I
continue to do that and meansI'm still growing and learning
and stuff like that.
But yeah, I think it's reallyvital to have.
F great mentors to look up toand have someone to bounce ideas
off of.
And yeah, also just to know whatit takes to have that success
(05:39):
and to like you just, yeah, youneed somebody to push you.
So I think that I'm been blessedto have somebody like that and
then to also now know how to dothat to my players as well.
Absolutely.
Do you think what you learned asa player, and I'm talking about
drills and how you start apractice, how you finish
practice, how you transitionfrom drill to drill.
(06:02):
Yeah.
How did that, that you got at18, are you still using some of
that today as a head coach?
Yeah, I think it's reallyinteresting how your perspective
changes as there's things as aplayer, maybe you're like, why
were we doing X, Y, or Z?
But then a year or two lateryou're like, oh, this is what
really y and I understand.
(06:22):
So I think some of it is likeremembering the drills that were
really fun and the drills thatwere really hard, but also now
with a little bit more of acoaching iq, understanding which
ones are more beneficial for usand how to lay out the practice
as far as that goes.
But I think.
Just one of the strengths ofbeing a young coach, I think is
having that shorter me, shorterterm memory of your playing days
(06:44):
and being able to reflect onthose and it things change
really quickly.
But I think it, it is a strengthto be able to remember what
things worked for you and howyou can, how you see that in
some of your players.
And if you can.
Give them your experience, andtry to advise them in that way.
I think that's something that Itry to do.
Yeah.
(07:04):
Yeah.
I remember my first year as a,first year as a head coach and I
coached against a hall of famerat Hanover College.
I think I was a basketball coachand they beat us by 50.
Okay.
It was just a trouncing and Iwent back and I watched the film
a couple times that summer and Iwas like.
They're not doing anythingspecial.
They don't have more talent thanwe have.
(07:27):
They don't have, extra thingsthat we don't have.
They just do the little thingsso well.
Yep.
So consistent.
You are already doing a lot ofthose things.
You have a discipline and a.
And a work ethic and aconsistency.
Where does that come from?
In, and I'm gonna throw yourhumility out the window.
This is your team, this is yourprogram.
(07:48):
Where does that come from?
I think a lot of it came fromhow I was as a player.
Like I'm, I've morphed into.
I'm, yeah, I'm, I'd say I'mstill the same person, but just
in a different role.
Like I've always been somebodywho understands how to work
really hard and just have alwaysloved the game so much.
Like even in our season when I'mdone watching our film, I'm
(08:11):
going in, I'm watching D onematches for fun, like I play all
summer long.
I play in the winter likewhenever I can.
So I think.
Just that, the love of the gameand just constantly expanding my
knowledge and stuff as far asthat goes.
And then I know that's verysimilar for many other coaches
and doesn't make me superunique.
But the other piece of it isjust willing, being really
(08:33):
willing to create relationshipswith my players and know that I
have let them know that I havetheir back more than just what
they can do for me on the court.
Like I wanna help you getthrough.
College, first of all you'rehere to get a great degree.
I want you to have a greatexperience along the way, but I
also like wanna be understandingof your brain health and
(08:53):
physical, like all those kindsof things.
So I think just, yeah, the, I,the whole holistic view I think
is what makes me.
Be a good coach and have thatsuccess early.
And I also have a really greatcoaching staff that I'd be,
yeah, I have to say somethingabout them and how David's been
with me for four years now,going on five years.
(09:15):
And he's also a huge piece ofthat consistency from the
transition from my beingassociate head coach to head
coach and he was graduateassistant to assistant.
So I think, yeah, I'd be.
Not in this position if I didn'thave an incredible staff
underneath me.
So that's so fun when you havepeople that you love and you're
doing it.
Yeah.
(09:35):
Work together every day.
Yeah.
It's great.
There's nothing better.
There's nothing.
Yeah.
We play volleyball in the summertogether, like we're teammates.
We work out together sometimes.
So yeah, that's stuff's awesomeand really grateful to have him
as well as my graduateassistant, Kevin, let's go back
two years ago.
You got the job, you've beenaround the program.
You've been the associate coach,you were a grad assistant, but
(09:57):
now the job's yours.
Talk to me about that firstmonth, what were some of the
things that you were like, theseare my priorities?
Like a a president has theirfirst a hundred days.
Yeah.
Did you have that focus?
This is how I'm gonna put myimprint on this program?
I think it happened like afterour spring season was over.
(10:19):
So I was, it was in aninteresting period, I guess our
students were getting ready toleave campus.
We're going into summertimewhere I'm not gonna see them as
much, but I made it a really bigpriority to stay connected with
them over the summer.
Just communicating about howthings are going, how's your
summer, how's your family?
That kind of stuff.
And then just really.
(10:39):
I already kinda had a plan, ofthis is my philosophy and like
how yeah, how I wanna run theprogram from top to bottom.
Like all the little details, theorganizational flow chart of
what I'm in charge of, what myassistant, graduate assistant
volunteers, what everybody's incharge of, as far as that goes.
And just yeah, wanted to breakit down from a bird's eye view,
(11:03):
so I like to plan and I like tobe as organized as possible, so
I.
I just wanted to see it all infront of me and make sure that I
was continuing on the corevalues that our program has
always had, and while continuingto strengthen, and build on
them.
It's funny you say that.
I had the the president of Giataon the podcast a few months ago.
(11:24):
Yeah.
And he talked about when hehires a coach, he brings him
into their, his office.
There's a whiteboard.
Yeah.
I wanna know what your cultureis.
I wanna know what that, what areyou gonna be known for?
Yeah.
Was that a part of your thoughtprocess when you took over what
definitely you wanted to beknown for and as a coach and as
(11:44):
a program?
Yeah, I think there's definitelya few things that we wanna be
known for.
One is just being a greatprogram, obviously.
And then two, just reallydiscipline that you mentioned.
And I, yeah, discipline and justthe care for each other.
The love for each other of loveof the game.
We actually, we have an acronymthat we use and it is care,
(12:05):
actually.
It stands for compassion,accountability, respect, and
Excellence.
And we just try to frameeverything in our culture.
Around that.
Like we need to care forourself, our teammates, our
coaches, the program, theuniversity in general.
So how can we do those things?
And we, when we have teammeetings, we'll like one of them
(12:26):
will be about the compassionpiece of it.
One will be about account andthere's obviously a lot of
overlap, but that's ourfoundation.
What was the EI missed The e.
Excellence.
Excellence.
I.
People, anybody that knows mehas worked for me for a long
time will laugh at this.
'cause I was one of thosepeople, I'd be sitting in a
university room and we'd betalking, we'd be in a committee
(12:48):
meeting talking about somethingand talking about who we wanted
to be.
And excellence would pop up andI was always the first one to
say, please define excellencefor me.
'cause I don't know what thatlooks like.
Yeah, because it looks likedifferent things depending on
where you're at.
I watched you play and I seeexcellence, but that's my idea
of what excellence looks like.
How do you define that to yourteam when you're talking about
(13:09):
excellence?
Yeah.
I guess on the court excellencelooks like the discipline, the
doing the little things, thejust.
Executing at a really highlevel, executing our scout, like
executing the physical skillsand siding out efficient, like
all those type of things, likejust playing good volleyball is
excellent, but we also talkabout being excellent in the
(13:30):
classroom, being excellent oncampus.
Showing up for other teams,showing up for other clubs and
other organizations.
So those are, yeah, that's howwe talk about it.
And yeah, definitely everybodycan define excellence in a
different way.
But again, that's why we havethose team meetings so that we
can be like, how do we wannadefine excellence?
What does that mean to us?
Program?
(13:51):
What's really cool, if you heardyourself there was another E you
used about seven times in there,and that's execution.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Execution, how we study.
What our executive functionskills look like.
When do we study, how do westudy the routine of it?
So I love that.
So for me, when you say Eexcellence and I hear execution
(14:12):
that gets me excited about thatword.
I love that.
Awesome.
Yeah, that's really cool.
And that's probably the bestdefinition I've ever heard of,
excellence.
Yep.
Because,'cause if I'm 19 yearsold, that helps me understand
what coach's expectations are ofexcellence how we execute what
(14:32):
you're teaching us.
What does execution for youmean?
What?
What does?
Is that a good teaching tool foryou?
Do you talk about execution alot?
Yeah, just when it comes to wealways have a really specific
scouting report and a game plangoing into a match.
So just talking about being inthe right positioning mostly,
(14:53):
and then obviously executing askill at a high level is
important to win a match.
So those are the main things Iwould say mostly.
Yeah.
Positioning is just so huge whenyou go watch high school games
or you're watching film, a highschool games are there.
Are there pet peeves?
Are there things that drive youcrazy that you don't see that
execution?
(15:13):
Definitely like just, I wouldsay an easy example, front row
setter, and you have the outsideblocking on the other side and
she's blocking, no, like shedoesn't move to be in front of
the setter and there's no hitterbehind.
So what are you doing?
Just hanging out back?
It's just like the littledetails of that stuff, right?
I'm just like.
Yeah, that I'm just like, wecould be fixing that really
(15:35):
easily, or not transitioning orjust like little effort things
mostly that doesn't take a lotof coaching IQ to fix.
Yeah.
Those things I think there's,yeah, there's some things where
you just have coaches who areout there doing their best and
just they're at where they'reat, but yeah those things of
like just the effort things Iguess are frustrating.
(15:56):
But a lot of that is just beingpurposeful.
Being in the moment andunderstanding your, what you're
doing and what's going on in thegame.
Yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
I know we're gonna talk aboutrecruiting in the next segment,
but does that does that affectwhen you know it's a coaching
issue, you can see that it's notbeing taught?
Yeah.
Does that affect how you goabout recruiting that kid that
(16:18):
maybe you like her ability, likeher?
Skillset.
But you're worried about whatyou're gonna, what you're gonna
have to teach her and what thatdevelopment timeline's gonna
look like.
I would say I'm usually moreconcerned about their, the
physical aspects and the type ofperson they are.
And then the IQ is somethingthat even the best players that
we get, we have to work withthem quite a bit on that stuff.
(16:39):
Coach talk, talk a little bitmore about that IQ and even the
EQ that you see on the floor andhow that affects your vision.
Yeah.
I think mostly the piece I'mlooking for in the recruiting is
obviously we want good people,so really making sure they're
good humans, but also the justthe physical aspects of, are
they.
Gonna be able to jump highenough at some point.
(17:01):
Can we physically get themstronger?
Are they long enough?
Those kind of things are moreimportant than the IQ piece,
just because even with the bestplayers that we get, we have to
work on their IQ quite a bit.
So that part I'm not as worriedabout as more we can teach that
and do a good job of teachingthat.
So I think, yeah, more of thephysical pieces and who they are
as a person.
(17:22):
Even though you've only been thehead coach for two years, you've
been the associate coach, you'vebeen the grad, you've been
playing there.
Have you found that there arecertain things that you like
teaching that you're comfortablesaying, okay, this kid is got A,
B, and CI like teaching d and e.
(17:45):
Or if you could get the wholepackage, you'd rather have that.
I'd say it's rare at this levelto get the whole package.
Yeah.
Just, you're gonna get eithersome really great athletes or
some kids who need more po skillpolishing.
I don't, it's rare, like that'swhat we're always after is the
whole package.
(18:05):
But I think, I don't know.
I just, I love many pieces ofvolleyball, so I think, and so
does my staff, so I think we, welove teaching.
Many aspects of the game, likethe small details to the
systematic things of this iswhat we wanna do with our
offense, this is our defensiveski.
I don't know if I could pick afavorite.
I've leaned towards attackingand blocking just'cause i's just
(18:27):
natural for me.
But yeah, I'd say I, I liketeaching the attacking
development, but I really likeit all so hard tech.
I, this was always a challengefor me, especially early on in
my career.
You like a kid, you like theircharacter, and then you get'em
on your campus.
And now for the first time intheir life, they're away from
home.
(18:47):
And you start seeing cracks inthat character that you thought
was pretty rock solid.
Yep.
Have you figured some of thatout or what are you digging a
little deeper?
Are you talking to more people?
Are you Yep.
Spending more time with parents?
Trying to figure out the depthof what that character is.
What does that look like?
Yeah.
I'd say conversations with clubcoaches, high school coaches,
(19:12):
and then just as much as I canget to know them and just not
prodding questions, butquestions that can tell you a
little bit more than just likesurface level info.
Yeah, I'd say that's definitelysomething I've tried to do more
of the longer I've been coachingjust'cause yeah, you try to get
to know'em as much as possible,but things change.
People change and yeah.
So we do our best to just keeppushing people in the right
(19:34):
direction and giving themresources when needed.
But yeah.
When I speak at high schools orin front of parents, I'll always
get the question, why do collegecoaches call coaches, high
school coaches and teachers?
Why do they do that?
Yeah.
And I go, I'll give you anexample.
I go, I, if I call the highschool coach, I'd ask about the
(19:55):
kid.
I, do all the due diligenceabout their character and their
work ethic.
And then my last question wasalways.
Tell me about Sarah's parents.
I didn't even need the coach tosay anything.
'cause if there was silence formore than about three seconds I
would just say coach.
You've said enough.
(20:16):
Yeah.
We're not gonna be recruitingSarah, but I appreciate it.
If you ever have another kidthat's interested in our
program, please let me know.
Yeah.
If a coach couldn't come out oftheir shoes to talk about mom
and dad and how great they areand how wonderful they are.
That always worried me.
Yeah.
Does that affect you?
A little bit, but it, I more sotake into account like what
(20:38):
they're, like, what the kidslike at practice and what are
their, what's their experiencewith them because there's
obviously, you get a lot frommom and dad, but I think it's
not always totally fair to judgethem completely off of their
parents.
I think it, it can tell you alot, but I just, yeah, I try to
get as much info as possible andthen yeah, try to use some
discernment with.
Who's giving me that info andwhat experiences led to that,
(21:01):
yeah.
But yeah, that it can be, Idon't know.
I think and especially incollege too, you don't have to
deal with the parents quite asmuch.
It tells you more, it tells youabout their kid.
But yeah, if I'm not talking totheir parents, unless there's
their cons, they have likehealth concern or something like
that where they're like, I'mreally worried about my
daughter.
But if it's about playing timeor like school, obviously
(21:22):
there's rules against that, but.
They can come into my office andask, Hey, what do I need to do
to get on the court?
Why X?
And I'm gonna tell you X, Y, andZ and this is what you need to
do to get better at X, Y, and Z.
You are gonna have to do thatwith your boss in a couple
years.
So learning how to do that withme, who I don't think I'm very
scary is important.
And part of just the growthhuman development, do you find
(21:44):
yourself helping your athleteskinda how to talk to mom and dad
at home about their experienceand about their role?
Is it important that we do somecoaching with those kids on how
to coach mom and dad?
Do you find yourself thinkingabout that at all?
That is really an interestingquestion.
I haven't really had manyconversations regarding that.
No that's really thoughtprovoking.
(22:05):
But I haven't reallycommunicated as far as that
goes.
I have in the beginning of theyear, sent a parent email
saying, you guys are a part ofour culture and I need you to
back me up and I need you to, ifthey're un calling you because
they're unhappy, then I need youto encourage them to come into
my office and that kind ofstuff.
Yeah.
But I haven't really thoughtabout the flip side, so that's,
thank you for bringing that up.
(22:25):
It's, I've been doing this for30 years, so for me, it's
something I talk about and Iwrite about it a lot too.
Because I, in 15 years, as,almost 15 years as a head coach,
I may have had issues with twoor three parents in that during
that time.
Yeah.
Even I can remember that wereeven even those were probably
minimal.
Yep.
But for me it was always like,especially when I'm talking to
(22:46):
high school coaches, it's.
You have to almost teach yourkids how to talk to mom and dad.
Yeah.
Because if I'm not sharing yourrole with you, like you said,
you do a great job of this, comein, you're not sure what your
role is, then we gotta fix that.
But for me, it's getting theyoungsters, the 17, 18,
19-year-old to understand, hey,you got juniors and seniors in
(23:09):
front of you that have gone totwo national tournaments.
All conference, all region.
Yep.
You might have to wait yourturn.
You're gonna be able to competewith'em every day, and you're
gonna have a chance to take someof those sets from them.
But you might have to come inand learn a little bit.
Yep.
And you, if you'll do that,we're gonna put you in a
position to be just like them.
(23:30):
So I love having thatconversation because when you've
been doing it as long as I haveI'm always worried about what's
next that I haven't thoughtabout.
You know what I mean?
How can I eliminate some ofthese problems before they
become problems?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you're doing such a good jobon the front end that you're
doing it.
That's why I tell high schoolcoaches, you have to eliminate
(23:52):
some of this on the front end.
If you don't eliminate it on thefront end, you're just asking
for that to be a problem later.
Let's talk about your staff.
Yeah.
At D three staffresponsibilities often expand
far beyond the court.
You're oftentimes working fiveor six hats.
What's something about yourstaff dynamic or the division of
responsibilities that makes yourprogram run so well?
(24:13):
I think just the willingness forall of us to step in and do
whatever is needed wheneverthings come up.
Because yeah, there's alwaysunforeseen situations.
Always feels like you need morehelp.
But yeah, I think it just superimportant and super valuable
that I have people who are like.
Willing to put, we always askour athletes to put the team
(24:33):
first, and these people reallyput the team first, like 24 7
and 365.
So yeah, I think that's reallythe strength of my staff.
You were a ga, you wereassociate coach?
Have you gotten better atdelegating yet?
Yes, I think so.
I think it's been.
(24:55):
Already better in year two.
But also just having that trustthat I have with David and with
Kevin and Emma as well.
Like just, yeah, therelationship that we have, it
makes it a lot easier to givethings off to people when you
know that they're completelybought in and they're gonna put
110% into every little task.
So yeah, I think I've gottenbetter at that.
(25:16):
It's also hard because I justreally i'm really nosy and wanna
know what's going on at alltimes.
So just some of that piece Ithink I can continue to improve
on.
But I've definitely noticed it'sbeen easier in year two to do
that.
Yeah.
But you're still building ittoo.
You've gotta have your fingersin everything,'cause you have a
direction you want to take thisand for sure.
You don't wanna veer too much.
(25:37):
You guys are doing everythingright and you, it's, you're
growing and developing everyday.
I wanna, I want to get into theGen Z athlete a little bit.
I am one of those believers.
I've, I think I've come aroundon this.
I don't think kids are changingas much as maybe the parents
have changed, maybe the culturearound them has changed.
There's so many opportunitieswith social media and things
(25:59):
like that.
Are there some misconceptionsthat you're seeing of our
athletes today and what youryoung women are having to deal
with?
Yeah, I think, I feel likethere's mis, like the focus
piece of that.
They have short attention spans,maybe that could be true, but
they also, when they're reallyintrigued with things, they're
gonna focus and they're gonnawork hard.
(26:20):
When you're telling them the whyof what we're doing.
So I think that's something thatI've heard other people say gen
Z can't focus, they can onlywatch a TikTok video for five
seconds and then they have toscroll.
So I think that's amisconception is that they can't
focus, they can't focus when youtell'em what's going on and you
tell'em the why and when they'remotivated and they understand
that whole piece that, yeah I'dsay that's the biggest piece,
(26:43):
like that part.
What's the why look like for youin terms of when they don't
understand why we're about to dothis or why we're training this
way, or why we're preparing thisway?
Are you, do you get frustratedwith the why or do you like
answering that?
No, I like, I love when they askquestions and I love.
(27:04):
Trying to tell them beforehand,before I try to get in front of
the questions and be like, Hey,we're gonna train this move
because this situation'shappening a lot and this is when
we should use it, and this isXY.
Like I think just trying to tellthem the Y as we're explaining
drills is eliminated a lot ofthose questions.
Or I guess I'm open to havingconversations about, Hey, I
(27:27):
think we could do X, Y, and Z inpractice because.
We're looking for I think just,yeah, telling them I wanna hear
their feedback and obviouslythere's a little bit of the
coaches are gonna have the finalsay, but we wanna hear what you
guys want, because at the end ofthe day, the program is for you
and it should be catering to youguys.
So I want to hear yourperspectives as much as possible
(27:48):
with with also using ourexpertise, to guide them at the
same time.
What do you want thatrelationship with your, with the
women in your program to looklike?
Or do you want it to look theway they want it to be with you?
I think, I want it to be wherethey feel comfortable coming
into my office and talking aboutthings other than volleyball.
(28:09):
I want them, yeah, to reallytrust me and understand that I.
We'll fight for them forwhatever it is that they need
and that, yeah, that I careabout them as people and not
just about that.
They're great volleyballplayers.
I care about one through 32 inthe program.
Like the equally amount,everybody's just as important
and just, yeah, I wanna havethat relationship where they
(28:30):
invite me to their weddings in10 years and get to, yeah.
I just want them to know thatI'm in their corner and that
Yeah I'll go to bat for them foranything.
That, that shows so much.
It really looks collaborative.
It looks like when they, evenwhen they come off the floor in
timeouts there's that give andtake with you.
Like they know they can talk toyou about what they're seeing.
Yeah.
And so I, that's one of thethings that really impressed me
(28:52):
about you coach and it inspired,thank you.
Motivated me.
'cause they did that with eachother and they did that with
other staff.
There was no fear.
I think.
Yeah.
It can be like.
Intimidating as a younger coachto be like, oh, I'm going to not
be my way or the highway, Iguess to assert dominance in a
way or whatever, or gain respector whatever.
(29:13):
But I think.
They've, I've earned theirrespect because they know that I
value their opinion and that I'mnot the one out on the court
anymore.
So I wanna know what you guysare seeing.
We all my coaching staff seesomething, but we wanna hear
what's really going on outthere.
'cause yeah, the perception isdifferent when you're in it
versus when you're on theoutside of it.
(29:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
How have you learned to preparefor nationals?
Because that was one of thething, I don't think I hear a
lot of coaches, and I alwayslike this too.
We're gonna practice the sameway you've practiced all season.
We're gonna do the things theway we've done it.
But then you get to the nationaltournament and the gym's a
(29:54):
little bit fuller.
It's a little bit louder.
The stakes are higher.
Is how have you looked at.
The national tournamentdifferently these last two
years.
Have you changed how you'veprepared during the season for
that?
Have you changed how you prepareto go into that national term at
all?
I think through the season we'realways trying to keep the
(30:15):
standard and like the intensitylevel pretty high or as high as
we can for what our bodies aregoing through and just how many
matches you play.
You play in a match and then yougot one day of practice and you
got two matches and then twodays so just trying to manage
that stuff, but.
Yeah, while trying to keepramping up the intensity and
keep trying to see more and morechallenging drills because the
competition's just gonna getharder.
(30:36):
The adrenaline's all gonna bethere, like all that stuff.
Preparing for nationals thisyear, think practice-wise,
pretty similar.
Trying to just tweak things.
Obviously shortened.
We're trying to keep our bodieshealthy and we're, man, we were
dealing with some just yeah.
Nagging injuries through theseason, so that was.
A little bit different this yearthan LA than last year.
(30:57):
Just a few more people trying tomonitor Hey, we just need your
body ready to go.
Trying to figure out how I canget them some reps, but more so
mental reps and some physicalreps.
But I think that's been the,that was the biggest piece this
year is trying to manage that,making sure our bodies are ready
to go.
For the tournament and ourstrength coach and athletic
trainer do an incredible jobhelping with that, with recovery
(31:20):
and just like extra recovery onsome of the days and Right.
That stuff.
But yeah, volleyball wise, likethe physical practice part was,
we approached that the same way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I it's amazing once you get togo the tournament and you're,
you've gone twice and you've wona game each year.
And then'cause your league isyour league.
(31:42):
You often, even if you win thatfirst one, you're gonna be
playing a number one, number twoseed.
You're gonna be playing apowerhouse.
In the next round.
Yeah.
Has it changed you learning someof that?
'Cause you've beaten some greatteams during the season.
You're scheduling well.
Yeah.
Are you learning anything as yougo through that?
And I know this is really close,so I hate to even open up some
(32:05):
of these.
It's okay.
No, you're fine.
But do you, I, I find this, Ifeel like I could write a book
on this'cause I I wanna learnmore about this.
Are you finding that your.
Seeing things as you go fromconference to nationals to
second round, you're seeing someof these teams, what they're
doing, how they're attacking.
(32:26):
Are you making mental changes asyou're doing that?
Are you taking notes?
Definitely.
Yeah.
I think it's really important tolearn from how other great
programs are doing things.
You don't maybe have to adopteverything, but I think it's
great to challenge your ideas asfar as systems go, as far as.
Offense goes, defensivepositioning, all kinds of stuff.
So I think it's been reallyinteresting to see some
(32:49):
commonalities of what some topteams do, like s system-wise,
and then there's some teams whorun some unique things that it
just works for them.
Yeah.
So I think, yeah, justcontinuing to reflect on.
Why people do things and why Ichoose to do the things that I
do in my program and not beingmarried to a certain thing and
being adaptable based on ourpersonnel.
(33:09):
I'm not gonna always run a sixtwo, I'm not always gonna run a
five one.
Yeah, I'm not always gonna playperimeter defense we're gonna do
things and try to, yeah.
I think, yeah, I think thelearning piece is huge and
learning from other greatprograms is really valuable.
As well.
And like you said, schedulingtough through the year.
I think this past season we itreally helped us grow and we're
(33:31):
ready to face that level ofcompetition at the end of the
year.
And I'm looking to try to do thesame next year.
Yeah.
But yeah, just continuing to seethat competition every single
day and trying to rise above itand become one of those
consistent teams that are in thetournament, like we wanna be
known for that.
I think what it did for me, andI'm hearing that from you too.
(33:52):
You're be, again, you're veryhumble and I appreciate that and
I respect that, but I also heardit's also teaching me we're
doing the right things.
We don't have to change a wholelot.
Maybe we need another.
Another six, one outside, maybewe need Sure.
This or that.
To compete.
But what we're doing is right.
(34:12):
I think.
Yeah.
That's what I got out of myfirst couple of national
tournaments is for sure.
It was almost a confirmation.
To believe in myself as a coach.
Have you felt that?
Oh, definitely.
Yeah.
I think it's just so humbling toknow that once you make it to
that stage, there's 300 otherteams that aren't there.
So just like being in thatpercentage is really awesome.
(34:35):
And still like it's hard to not.
It's hard to not be disappointedwith how we finished, but it's
also hard to not be so proud ofthat finish of top 32.
Like it's hard to hang yourheads, but it also was like we
did have a goal of reaching theSweet 16, so it was.
A little bit of a sour taste,but that's just'cause of our
high standards.
So yeah, I think it wasvalidating and great, but also
(34:59):
just makes you even more hungrywhen you're that close, but that
far at the same time.
So yeah, just a bunch of greatthings from that.
That's pretty cool.
That's really cool.
Coach, this has been awesome.
I'm excited to talk a littlemore recruiting with you.
I wanna do a little rapid firewith you.
Let our audience get to know youa little bit better.
Okay.
Is there a favorite drill thatplayers pretend to hate but you
(35:22):
love running that you get stuffabout, I would say the pit drill
just coach on a box versus twokids and just all out defense
touching 10 balls and, yeah.
Yeah, that's there.
There's always some.
Friendly competition and justpushing'em to their limits.
That's always fun.
And when you got the whole teamaround each other, like
(35:42):
cheering, every time somebodygets a great touch or Yep.
Or whatnot, that's always superfun.
Yeah.
We had a drill like that.
We call it warrior drill.
Yeah.
I love those drills.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you weren't coachingvolleyball, what sport would you
coach?
I was the interim head tenniscoach a couple years ago, so I
guess I could say tennis.
There you go.
I really like basketball.
I don't have a ton of basketballknowledge, but I love the sport
(36:04):
and love watching it.
So I'd say probably an indoorsport I'm built for Inside you
and me, both.
You and me both.
Best volleyball gym you've everplayed or coached in?
Probably Hope last year.
That facility was incredible.
Yeah.
Be Becky's got a heck of afacility up there, doesn't she?
Yeah, it's great.
(36:24):
It's a great place to, to watchany sport.
Yeah.
Is there a coaching phrase yourplayers hear from you way too
often?
I'm sure there's a couple.
I'm trying to think of, what doI say with, I just, it's hard to
think of'em'cause you just sayit without, you don't think, you
don't, you may hear it all thetime, but you don't.
Yeah.
Make a move.
Job's not done.
I don't know.
It's silly stuff.
(36:45):
Just couple silly like that.
Yeah.
Job not done.
That's a great one.
Yeah.
All here's some fun ones.
Dogs or cats.
Cats.
I love dogs though.
But I have two cats at home.
You're a cat.
Your a cat for Yeah.
I go back and forth.
I don't have any pets, but I'vehad both over the years.
Go to Hype song for a big match.
Is there a song you love?
Ooh the team loves some Gorillathis year.
(37:08):
Anything by Gorilla or yeah.
Any good upbeat rap music we'reinto.
All right.
If your team were a movie, whatgenre would they be?
Comedy for sure.
That's great.
If you could bring back one oldschool volleyball rule, what
would it be?
Maybe the side out scoring.
(37:28):
Yeah.
I risk and reward the match.
I'm sure we wouldn't be playingfive set matches if we were
doing that, but Yeah.
Yeah, it could be interesting.
Just go ACE or air every time.
What's your coaching superpower?
Superpower hitting good downballs.
I don't know.
(37:52):
That's a good one.
Is there a part of who you areas a coach that makes you love
being a coach?
Is there a piece of it that justthat's my joy, that's where I
get my joy from this.
Oh yeah.
Just when you see a kid work sohard trying to execute a skill
or.
Really anything and then theyfinally get it and they're so
(38:14):
excited about it.
Like those are the moments thatare so fun as a coach.
And yeah, just seeing the teamhave success after they work so
hard and you see'em doing X, Y,and Z all year, and then they
get to have a little bit ofthat, that, yeah, that success
and excitement is, makeseverything worth it when that
light bulb goes off.
Yep.
Definitely clicks.
(38:35):
Yeah.
Coach, you're awesome.
I'm so glad we got to meet.
I'm so impressed with you andexcited to talk a little
recruiting with you, but thanksfor doing this.
Yeah, thanks so much for havingme.
It's been fun.
That was my conversation withCoach Kara Davis, head
volleyball coach at theUniversity of Dubuque.
If you're listening as a coach,you probably heard it right
away.
The intentionality, thehumility, and the deep respect
(38:58):
she has for her players, herstaff, and the process.
And if you're listening as anadministrator or an aspiring
head coach, you heard somethingeven more powerful.
A leader who understands thatculture isn't something you talk
about.
It's something you live everysingle day.
Cara success speaks for itself.
But what really stands out mostto me is how grounded she is in
(39:22):
the why she coaches and whoshe's leading.
This is what significance lookslike in coaching discipline,
paired with joy, toughness,paired with connection and
standards that never waver.
And this conversation isn'tdone.
Coming up Monday on theSignificant recruiting podcast,
coach Davis joins me again tobreak down the recruiting side
(39:44):
of the journey, what Divisionthree coaches are actually
looking for, how families shouldevaluate fit, and how recruits
can position themselves honestlyand effectively in today's
recruiting landscape.
If you're a parent, a recruit.
Or a club or high school coach,you won't want to miss that
episode.
As always, you can find allepisodes, resources, and tools
(40:06):
for your coaching and recruitingjourney@coachmattrogers.com.
Until next time, stay focused onwhat you can control.
Stay humble and keep chasingsignificance.
Welcome back to The SignificantCoaching Podcast.
I'm your host, Matt Rogers.
Today's guest is someone I hadthe pleasure of watching Coach
Live this past season.
Her team was disciplined butplayed with joy.
They were gritty, but stayedtrue to their strategy.
And they played hard, but alwaysfor each other.
Kara Davis is the headvolleyball coach at the
(00:31):
University of Dubuque, and in ashort amount of time, she has
firmly established herself asone of the great young coaches
in all of NCAA division threevolleyball in her first two
seasons as head coach.
Kara has led her program to a 50and 15 record back to back NCAA
Division three nationaltournament appearances, and two
(00:52):
trips to the round of 32.
But what makes her story socompelling isn't just the
results, it's how she's achievedthem.
Karen knows this program fromthe inside out.
She was an honorable mention AllAmerican as a player at UD
before serving as a graduateassistant, then an assistant
coach, then an associate headcoach.
(01:14):
And now for the past twoseasons, she leads the Spartans
as their head coach.
Without a doubt, she bleedsSpartan Blue.
In this conversation, we talkabout building trust, sustaining
success, the love she has forher staff, and the joy of
leading dynamic young women.
And we also dig deep into whatit really takes to build a
(01:37):
program that lasts.
Whether you're a coach, anadministrator, or someone
aspiring to lead at the nextlevel.
There is a lot to learn fromCoach Davis.
She is impressive, to say theleast.
Let's get into it.
Here's my conversation withCoach Kara Davis.
Coach Davis, can we just startwith 50 and 15, 5, 0 and 15 two
(02:03):
national tournament bursts inyour first two years?
What the heck?
How do you do that in your firsttwo years?
I think was set up with greatsuccess for my predecessor, but
it also really helped to havethose.
Really trusting relationshipswith the returners.
And I didn't change a ton ofthings systematically or even
(02:27):
like with our culture.
So I think it was a reallysmooth transition.
And I just have some reallygreat athletes and humans on the
team that know how to work hardand like just, yeah the amount
of work that they put in and theoff season is just incredible.
And I think that's really thereason why we had such success
the last two years.
(02:47):
I appreciate your humility andit's always nice when a coach
leaves and leaves you a nicehand, right?
But I got to watch you playearly this fall.
And I was so impressed with thewomen on your team and how they
cared about each other and thegrit and the toughness that they
(03:08):
played.
And you got a great environmentthere.
Yeah.
It was so great to see.
The students come out andsupport you, and you had a great
crowd.
You had a great facility.
What's that been like startingthis journey at a place like
University of Dubuque and justthe community around you?
Yeah.
I have been involved at theUniversity of Dubuque for the
(03:30):
last 10 years, so it's been.
The community aspect is thereason that I've stayed for so
long, and just the people hereare incredible and I think we
have a lot of resources thatallow us to be successful and
continue to push forward.
So yeah, that's really a hugereason why I stay here.
And it's just so exciting to bein a place where.
(03:52):
The athletic department, justlike the students here and the
coaches, they just get it andreally wanna support each other.
So that's been really fun to seethat shift and grow over the
last 10 years, that support andthe atmosphere we get in the gym
just.
Is a lot of the other studentathletes and some great
community members as well, but alot of the student athletes just
show up and they know what eachother are going through in the
(04:15):
day-to-day process and what ittakes to be a D three athlete.
So I think, yeah, it's a reallyspecial environment and
something we're really gratefulto have.
I got into the sergeant, and Ihate getting into arguments
ever, but I got in this argumentwith a high school coach and I
didn't really intend to.
I talked about how valuable itis to have played.
(04:36):
At a certain level where you gotcoached really well.
I think it's, I really thinkit's really hard to be a really
good high school, let alone agood college coach if you
weren't a player that got to becoached hard and be taught.
How to play the game.
Were, yeah.
Sit with that.
Because I know you were a gradat Dubuque.
You were a heck of a player atDubuque.
(04:57):
You got that full journey of aneducation these last 10, 12
years.
How important was that to youbecoming the person you are
today as a head coach?
Yeah, I think it's has so muchto do with who I am today.
Just the lessons I learned as aplayer and as a young coach and
(05:18):
still I'm learning something newevery single day and I hope I
continue to do that and meansI'm still growing and learning
and stuff like that.
But yeah, I think it's reallyvital to have.
F great mentors to look up toand have someone to bounce ideas
off of.
And yeah, also just to know whatit takes to have that success
(05:39):
and to like you just, yeah, youneed somebody to push you.
So I think that I'm been blessedto have somebody like that and
then to also now know how to dothat to my players as well.
Absolutely.
Do you think what you learned asa player, and I'm talking about
drills and how you start apractice, how you finish
practice, how you transitionfrom drill to drill.
(06:02):
Yeah.
How did that, that you got at18, are you still using some of
that today as a head coach?
Yeah, I think it's reallyinteresting how your perspective
changes as there's things as aplayer, maybe you're like, why
were we doing X, Y, or Z?
But then a year or two lateryou're like, oh, this is what
really y and I understand.
(06:22):
So I think some of it is likeremembering the drills that were
really fun and the drills thatwere really hard, but also now
with a little bit more of acoaching iq, understanding which
ones are more beneficial for usand how to lay out the practice
as far as that goes.
But I think.
Just one of the strengths ofbeing a young coach, I think is
having that shorter me, shorterterm memory of your playing days
(06:44):
and being able to reflect onthose and it things change
really quickly.
But I think it, it is a strengthto be able to remember what
things worked for you and howyou can, how you see that in
some of your players.
And if you can.
Give them your experience, andtry to advise them in that way.
I think that's something that Itry to do.
Yeah.
(07:04):
Yeah.
I remember my first year as a,first year as a head coach and I
coached against a hall of famerat Hanover College.
I think I was a basketball coachand they beat us by 50.
Okay.
It was just a trouncing and Iwent back and I watched the film
a couple times that summer and Iwas like.
They're not doing anythingspecial.
They don't have more talent thanwe have.
(07:27):
They don't have, extra thingsthat we don't have.
They just do the little thingsso well.
Yep.
So consistent.
You are already doing a lot ofthose things.
You have a discipline and a.
And a work ethic and aconsistency.
Where does that come from?
In, and I'm gonna throw yourhumility out the window.
This is your team, this is yourprogram.
(07:48):
Where does that come from?
I think a lot of it came fromhow I was as a player.
Like I'm, I've morphed into.
I'm, yeah, I'm, I'd say I'mstill the same person, but just
in a different role.
Like I've always been somebodywho understands how to work
really hard and just have alwaysloved the game so much.
Like even in our season when I'mdone watching our film, I'm
(08:11):
going in, I'm watching D onematches for fun, like I play all
summer long.
I play in the winter likewhenever I can.
So I think.
Just that, the love of the gameand just constantly expanding my
knowledge and stuff as far asthat goes.
And then I know that's verysimilar for many other coaches
and doesn't make me superunique.
But the other piece of it isjust willing, being really
(08:33):
willing to create relationshipswith my players and know that I
have let them know that I havetheir back more than just what
they can do for me on the court.
Like I wanna help you getthrough.
College, first of all you'rehere to get a great degree.
I want you to have a greatexperience along the way, but I
also like wanna be understandingof your brain health and
(08:53):
physical, like all those kindsof things.
So I think just, yeah, the, I,the whole holistic view I think
is what makes me.
Be a good coach and have thatsuccess early.
And I also have a really greatcoaching staff that I'd be,
yeah, I have to say somethingabout them and how David's been
with me for four years now,going on five years.
(09:15):
And he's also a huge piece ofthat consistency from the
transition from my beingassociate head coach to head
coach and he was graduateassistant to assistant.
So I think, yeah, I'd be.
Not in this position if I didn'thave an incredible staff
underneath me.
So that's so fun when you havepeople that you love and you're
doing it.
Yeah.
(09:35):
Work together every day.
Yeah.
It's great.
There's nothing better.
There's nothing.
Yeah.
We play volleyball in the summertogether, like we're teammates.
We work out together sometimes.
So yeah, that's stuff's awesomeand really grateful to have him
as well as my graduateassistant, Kevin, let's go back
two years ago.
You got the job, you've beenaround the program.
You've been the associate coach,you were a grad assistant, but
(09:57):
now the job's yours.
Talk to me about that firstmonth, what were some of the
things that you were like, theseare my priorities?
Like a a president has theirfirst a hundred days.
Yeah.
Did you have that focus?
This is how I'm gonna put myimprint on this program?
I think it happened like afterour spring season was over.
(10:19):
So I was, it was in aninteresting period, I guess our
students were getting ready toleave campus.
We're going into summertimewhere I'm not gonna see them as
much, but I made it a really bigpriority to stay connected with
them over the summer.
Just communicating about howthings are going, how's your
summer, how's your family?
That kind of stuff.
And then just really.
(10:39):
I already kinda had a plan, ofthis is my philosophy and like
how yeah, how I wanna run theprogram from top to bottom.
Like all the little details, theorganizational flow chart of
what I'm in charge of, what myassistant, graduate assistant
volunteers, what everybody's incharge of, as far as that goes.
And just yeah, wanted to breakit down from a bird's eye view,
(11:03):
so I like to plan and I like tobe as organized as possible, so
I.
I just wanted to see it all infront of me and make sure that I
was continuing on the corevalues that our program has
always had, and while continuingto strengthen, and build on
them.
It's funny you say that.
I had the the president of Giataon the podcast a few months ago.
(11:24):
Yeah.
And he talked about when hehires a coach, he brings him
into their, his office.
There's a whiteboard.
Yeah.
I wanna know what your cultureis.
I wanna know what that, what areyou gonna be known for?
Yeah.
Was that a part of your thoughtprocess when you took over what
definitely you wanted to beknown for and as a coach and as
(11:44):
a program?
Yeah, I think there's definitelya few things that we wanna be
known for.
One is just being a greatprogram, obviously.
And then two, just reallydiscipline that you mentioned.
And I, yeah, discipline and justthe care for each other.
The love for each other of loveof the game.
We actually, we have an acronymthat we use and it is care,
(12:05):
actually.
It stands for compassion,accountability, respect, and
Excellence.
And we just try to frameeverything in our culture.
Around that.
Like we need to care forourself, our teammates, our
coaches, the program, theuniversity in general.
So how can we do those things?
And we, when we have teammeetings, we'll like one of them
(12:26):
will be about the compassionpiece of it.
One will be about account andthere's obviously a lot of
overlap, but that's ourfoundation.
What was the EI missed The e.
Excellence.
Excellence.
I.
People, anybody that knows mehas worked for me for a long
time will laugh at this.
'cause I was one of thosepeople, I'd be sitting in a
university room and we'd betalking, we'd be in a committee
(12:48):
meeting talking about somethingand talking about who we wanted
to be.
And excellence would pop up andI was always the first one to
say, please define excellencefor me.
'cause I don't know what thatlooks like.
Yeah, because it looks likedifferent things depending on
where you're at.
I watched you play and I seeexcellence, but that's my idea
of what excellence looks like.
How do you define that to yourteam when you're talking about
(13:09):
excellence?
Yeah.
I guess on the court excellencelooks like the discipline, the
doing the little things, thejust.
Executing at a really highlevel, executing our scout, like
executing the physical skillsand siding out efficient, like
all those type of things, likejust playing good volleyball is
excellent, but we also talkabout being excellent in the
(13:30):
classroom, being excellent oncampus.
Showing up for other teams,showing up for other clubs and
other organizations.
So those are, yeah, that's howwe talk about it.
And yeah, definitely everybodycan define excellence in a
different way.
But again, that's why we havethose team meetings so that we
can be like, how do we wannadefine excellence?
What does that mean to us?
Program?
(13:51):
What's really cool, if you heardyourself there was another E you
used about seven times in there,and that's execution.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Execution, how we study.
What our executive functionskills look like.
When do we study, how do westudy the routine of it?
So I love that.
So for me, when you say Eexcellence and I hear execution
(14:12):
that gets me excited about thatword.
I love that.
Awesome.
Yeah, that's really cool.
And that's probably the bestdefinition I've ever heard of,
excellence.
Yep.
Because,'cause if I'm 19 yearsold, that helps me understand
what coach's expectations are ofexcellence how we execute what
(14:32):
you're teaching us.
What does execution for youmean?
What?
What does?
Is that a good teaching tool foryou?
Do you talk about execution alot?
Yeah, just when it comes to wealways have a really specific
scouting report and a game plangoing into a match.
So just talking about being inthe right positioning mostly,
(14:53):
and then obviously executing askill at a high level is
important to win a match.
So those are the main things Iwould say mostly.
Yeah.
Positioning is just so huge whenyou go watch high school games
or you're watching film, a highschool games are there.
Are there pet peeves?
Are there things that drive youcrazy that you don't see that
execution?
(15:13):
Definitely like just, I wouldsay an easy example, front row
setter, and you have the outsideblocking on the other side and
she's blocking, no, like shedoesn't move to be in front of
the setter and there's no hitterbehind.
So what are you doing?
Just hanging out back?
It's just like the littledetails of that stuff, right?
I'm just like.
Yeah, that I'm just like, wecould be fixing that really
(15:35):
easily, or not transitioning orjust like little effort things
mostly that doesn't take a lotof coaching IQ to fix.
Yeah.
Those things I think there's,yeah, there's some things where
you just have coaches who areout there doing their best and
just they're at where they'reat, but yeah those things of
like just the effort things Iguess are frustrating.
(15:56):
But a lot of that is just beingpurposeful.
Being in the moment andunderstanding your, what you're
doing and what's going on in thegame.
Yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
I know we're gonna talk aboutrecruiting in the next segment,
but does that does that affectwhen you know it's a coaching
issue, you can see that it's notbeing taught?
Yeah.
Does that affect how you goabout recruiting that kid that
(16:18):
maybe you like her ability, likeher?
Skillset.
But you're worried about whatyou're gonna, what you're gonna
have to teach her and what thatdevelopment timeline's gonna
look like.
I would say I'm usually moreconcerned about their, the
physical aspects and the type ofperson they are.
And then the IQ is somethingthat even the best players that
we get, we have to work withthem quite a bit on that stuff.
(16:39):
Coach talk, talk a little bitmore about that IQ and even the
EQ that you see on the floor andhow that affects your vision.
Yeah.
I think mostly the piece I'mlooking for in the recruiting is
obviously we want good people,so really making sure they're
good humans, but also the justthe physical aspects of, are
they.
Gonna be able to jump highenough at some point.
(17:01):
Can we physically get themstronger?
Are they long enough?
Those kind of things are moreimportant than the IQ piece,
just because even with the bestplayers that we get, we have to
work on their IQ quite a bit.
So that part I'm not as worriedabout as more we can teach that
and do a good job of teachingthat.
So I think, yeah, more of thephysical pieces and who they are
as a person.
(17:22):
Even though you've only been thehead coach for two years, you've
been the associate coach, you'vebeen the grad, you've been
playing there.
Have you found that there arecertain things that you like
teaching that you're comfortablesaying, okay, this kid is got A,
B, and CI like teaching d and e.
(17:45):
Or if you could get the wholepackage, you'd rather have that.
I'd say it's rare at this levelto get the whole package.
Yeah.
Just, you're gonna get eithersome really great athletes or
some kids who need more po skillpolishing.
I don't, it's rare, like that'swhat we're always after is the
whole package.
(18:05):
But I think, I don't know.
I just, I love many pieces ofvolleyball, so I think, and so
does my staff, so I think we, welove teaching.
Many aspects of the game, likethe small details to the
systematic things of this iswhat we wanna do with our
offense, this is our defensiveski.
I don't know if I could pick afavorite.
I've leaned towards attackingand blocking just'cause i's just
(18:27):
natural for me.
But yeah, I'd say I, I liketeaching the attacking
development, but I really likeit all so hard tech.
I, this was always a challengefor me, especially early on in
my career.
You like a kid, you like theircharacter, and then you get'em
on your campus.
And now for the first time intheir life, they're away from
home.
(18:47):
And you start seeing cracks inthat character that you thought
was pretty rock solid.
Yep.
Have you figured some of thatout or what are you digging a
little deeper?
Are you talking to more people?
Are you Yep.
Spending more time with parents?
Trying to figure out the depthof what that character is.
What does that look like?
Yeah.
I'd say conversations with clubcoaches, high school coaches,
(19:12):
and then just as much as I canget to know them and just not
prodding questions, butquestions that can tell you a
little bit more than just likesurface level info.
Yeah, I'd say that's definitelysomething I've tried to do more
of the longer I've been coachingjust'cause yeah, you try to get
to know'em as much as possible,but things change.
People change and yeah.
So we do our best to just keeppushing people in the right
(19:34):
direction and giving themresources when needed.
But yeah.
When I speak at high schools orin front of parents, I'll always
get the question, why do collegecoaches call coaches, high
school coaches and teachers?
Why do they do that?
Yeah.
And I go, I'll give you anexample.
I go, I, if I call the highschool coach, I'd ask about the
(19:55):
kid.
I, do all the due diligenceabout their character and their
work ethic.
And then my last question wasalways.
Tell me about Sarah's parents.
I didn't even need the coach tosay anything.
'cause if there was silence formore than about three seconds I
would just say coach.
You've said enough.
(20:16):
Yeah.
We're not gonna be recruitingSarah, but I appreciate it.
If you ever have another kidthat's interested in our
program, please let me know.
Yeah.
If a coach couldn't come out oftheir shoes to talk about mom
and dad and how great they areand how wonderful they are.
That always worried me.
Yeah.
Does that affect you?
A little bit, but it, I more sotake into account like what
(20:38):
they're, like, what the kidslike at practice and what are
their, what's their experiencewith them because there's
obviously, you get a lot frommom and dad, but I think it's
not always totally fair to judgethem completely off of their
parents.
I think it, it can tell you alot, but I just, yeah, I try to
get as much info as possible andthen yeah, try to use some
discernment with.
Who's giving me that info andwhat experiences led to that,
(21:01):
yeah.
But yeah, that it can be, Idon't know.
I think and especially incollege too, you don't have to
deal with the parents quite asmuch.
It tells you more, it tells youabout their kid.
But yeah, if I'm not talking totheir parents, unless there's
their cons, they have likehealth concern or something like
that where they're like, I'mreally worried about my
daughter.
But if it's about playing timeor like school, obviously
(21:22):
there's rules against that, but.
They can come into my office andask, Hey, what do I need to do
to get on the court?
Why X?
And I'm gonna tell you X, Y, andZ and this is what you need to
do to get better at X, Y, and Z.
You are gonna have to do thatwith your boss in a couple
years.
So learning how to do that withme, who I don't think I'm very
scary is important.
And part of just the growthhuman development, do you find
(21:44):
yourself helping your athleteskinda how to talk to mom and dad
at home about their experienceand about their role?
Is it important that we do somecoaching with those kids on how
to coach mom and dad?
Do you find yourself thinkingabout that at all?
That is really an interestingquestion.
I haven't really had manyconversations regarding that.
No that's really thoughtprovoking.
(22:05):
But I haven't reallycommunicated as far as that
goes.
I have in the beginning of theyear, sent a parent email
saying, you guys are a part ofour culture and I need you to
back me up and I need you to, ifthey're un calling you because
they're unhappy, then I need youto encourage them to come into
my office and that kind ofstuff.
Yeah.
But I haven't really thoughtabout the flip side, so that's,
thank you for bringing that up.
(22:25):
It's, I've been doing this for30 years, so for me, it's
something I talk about and Iwrite about it a lot too.
Because I, in 15 years, as,almost 15 years as a head coach,
I may have had issues with twoor three parents in that during
that time.
Yeah.
Even I can remember that wereeven even those were probably
minimal.
Yep.
But for me it was always like,especially when I'm talking to
(22:46):
high school coaches, it's.
You have to almost teach yourkids how to talk to mom and dad.
Yeah.
Because if I'm not sharing yourrole with you, like you said,
you do a great job of this, comein, you're not sure what your
role is, then we gotta fix that.
But for me, it's getting theyoungsters, the 17, 18,
19-year-old to understand, hey,you got juniors and seniors in
(23:09):
front of you that have gone totwo national tournaments.
All conference, all region.
Yep.
You might have to wait yourturn.
You're gonna be able to competewith'em every day, and you're
gonna have a chance to take someof those sets from them.
But you might have to come inand learn a little bit.
Yep.
And you, if you'll do that,we're gonna put you in a
position to be just like them.
(23:30):
So I love having thatconversation because when you've
been doing it as long as I haveI'm always worried about what's
next that I haven't thoughtabout.
You know what I mean?
How can I eliminate some ofthese problems before they
become problems?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you're doing such a good jobon the front end that you're
doing it.
That's why I tell high schoolcoaches, you have to eliminate
(23:52):
some of this on the front end.
If you don't eliminate it on thefront end, you're just asking
for that to be a problem later.
Let's talk about your staff.
Yeah.
At D three staffresponsibilities often expand
far beyond the court.
You're oftentimes working fiveor six hats.
What's something about yourstaff dynamic or the division of
responsibilities that makes yourprogram run so well?
(24:13):
I think just the willingness forall of us to step in and do
whatever is needed wheneverthings come up.
Because yeah, there's alwaysunforeseen situations.
Always feels like you need morehelp.
But yeah, I think it just superimportant and super valuable
that I have people who are like.
Willing to put, we always askour athletes to put the team
(24:33):
first, and these people reallyput the team first, like 24 7
and 365.
So yeah, I think that's reallythe strength of my staff.
You were a ga, you wereassociate coach?
Have you gotten better atdelegating yet?
Yes, I think so.
I think it's been.
(24:55):
Already better in year two.
But also just having that trustthat I have with David and with
Kevin and Emma as well.
Like just, yeah, therelationship that we have, it
makes it a lot easier to givethings off to people when you
know that they're completelybought in and they're gonna put
110% into every little task.
So yeah, I think I've gottenbetter at that.
(25:16):
It's also hard because I justreally i'm really nosy and wanna
know what's going on at alltimes.
So just some of that piece Ithink I can continue to improve
on.
But I've definitely noticed it'sbeen easier in year two to do
that.
Yeah.
But you're still building ittoo.
You've gotta have your fingersin everything,'cause you have a
direction you want to take thisand for sure.
You don't wanna veer too much.
(25:37):
You guys are doing everythingright and you, it's, you're
growing and developing everyday.
I wanna, I want to get into theGen Z athlete a little bit.
I am one of those believers.
I've, I think I've come aroundon this.
I don't think kids are changingas much as maybe the parents
have changed, maybe the culturearound them has changed.
There's so many opportunitieswith social media and things
(25:59):
like that.
Are there some misconceptionsthat you're seeing of our
athletes today and what youryoung women are having to deal
with?
Yeah, I think, I feel likethere's mis, like the focus
piece of that.
They have short attention spans,maybe that could be true, but
they also, when they're reallyintrigued with things, they're
gonna focus and they're gonnawork hard.
(26:20):
When you're telling them the whyof what we're doing.
So I think that's something thatI've heard other people say gen
Z can't focus, they can onlywatch a TikTok video for five
seconds and then they have toscroll.
So I think that's amisconception is that they can't
focus, they can't focus when youtell'em what's going on and you
tell'em the why and when they'remotivated and they understand
that whole piece that, yeah I'dsay that's the biggest piece,
(26:43):
like that part.
What's the why look like for youin terms of when they don't
understand why we're about to dothis or why we're training this
way, or why we're preparing thisway?
Are you, do you get frustratedwith the why or do you like
answering that?
No, I like, I love when they askquestions and I love.
(27:04):
Trying to tell them beforehand,before I try to get in front of
the questions and be like, Hey,we're gonna train this move
because this situation'shappening a lot and this is when
we should use it, and this isXY.
Like I think just trying to tellthem the Y as we're explaining
drills is eliminated a lot ofthose questions.
Or I guess I'm open to havingconversations about, Hey, I
(27:27):
think we could do X, Y, and Z inpractice because.
We're looking for I think just,yeah, telling them I wanna hear
their feedback and obviouslythere's a little bit of the
coaches are gonna have the finalsay, but we wanna hear what you
guys want, because at the end ofthe day, the program is for you
and it should be catering to youguys.
So I want to hear yourperspectives as much as possible
(27:48):
with with also using ourexpertise, to guide them at the
same time.
What do you want thatrelationship with your, with the
women in your program to looklike?
Or do you want it to look theway they want it to be with you?
I think, I want it to be wherethey feel comfortable coming
into my office and talking aboutthings other than volleyball.
(28:09):
I want them, yeah, to reallytrust me and understand that I.
We'll fight for them forwhatever it is that they need
and that, yeah, that I careabout them as people and not
just about that.
They're great volleyballplayers.
I care about one through 32 inthe program.
Like the equally amount,everybody's just as important
and just, yeah, I wanna havethat relationship where they
(28:30):
invite me to their weddings in10 years and get to, yeah.
I just want them to know thatI'm in their corner and that
Yeah I'll go to bat for them foranything.
That, that shows so much.
It really looks collaborative.
It looks like when they, evenwhen they come off the floor in
timeouts there's that give andtake with you.
Like they know they can talk toyou about what they're seeing.
Yeah.
And so I, that's one of thethings that really impressed me
(28:52):
about you coach and it inspired,thank you.
Motivated me.
'cause they did that with eachother and they did that with
other staff.
There was no fear.
I think.
Yeah.
It can be like.
Intimidating as a younger coachto be like, oh, I'm going to not
be my way or the highway, Iguess to assert dominance in a
way or whatever, or gain respector whatever.
(29:13):
But I think.
They've, I've earned theirrespect because they know that I
value their opinion and that I'mnot the one out on the court
anymore.
So I wanna know what you guysare seeing.
We all my coaching staff seesomething, but we wanna hear
what's really going on outthere.
'cause yeah, the perception isdifferent when you're in it
versus when you're on theoutside of it.
(29:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
How have you learned to preparefor nationals?
Because that was one of thething, I don't think I hear a
lot of coaches, and I alwayslike this too.
We're gonna practice the sameway you've practiced all season.
We're gonna do the things theway we've done it.
But then you get to the nationaltournament and the gym's a
(29:54):
little bit fuller.
It's a little bit louder.
The stakes are higher.
Is how have you looked at.
The national tournamentdifferently these last two
years.
Have you changed how you'veprepared during the season for
that?
Have you changed how you prepareto go into that national term at
all?
I think through the season we'realways trying to keep the
(30:15):
standard and like the intensitylevel pretty high or as high as
we can for what our bodies aregoing through and just how many
matches you play.
You play in a match and then yougot one day of practice and you
got two matches and then twodays so just trying to manage
that stuff, but.
Yeah, while trying to keepramping up the intensity and
keep trying to see more and morechallenging drills because the
competition's just gonna getharder.
(30:36):
The adrenaline's all gonna bethere, like all that stuff.
Preparing for nationals thisyear, think practice-wise,
pretty similar.
Trying to just tweak things.
Obviously shortened.
We're trying to keep our bodieshealthy and we're, man, we were
dealing with some just yeah.
Nagging injuries through theseason, so that was.
A little bit different this yearthan LA than last year.
(30:57):
Just a few more people trying tomonitor Hey, we just need your
body ready to go.
Trying to figure out how I canget them some reps, but more so
mental reps and some physicalreps.
But I think that's been the,that was the biggest piece this
year is trying to manage that,making sure our bodies are ready
to go.
For the tournament and ourstrength coach and athletic
trainer do an incredible jobhelping with that, with recovery
(31:20):
and just like extra recovery onsome of the days and Right.
That stuff.
But yeah, volleyball wise, likethe physical practice part was,
we approached that the same way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I it's amazing once you get togo the tournament and you're,
you've gone twice and you've wona game each year.
And then'cause your league isyour league.
(31:42):
You often, even if you win thatfirst one, you're gonna be
playing a number one, number twoseed.
You're gonna be playing apowerhouse.
In the next round.
Yeah.
Has it changed you learning someof that?
'Cause you've beaten some greatteams during the season.
You're scheduling well.
Yeah.
Are you learning anything as yougo through that?
And I know this is really close,so I hate to even open up some
(32:05):
of these.
It's okay.
No, you're fine.
But do you, I, I find this, Ifeel like I could write a book
on this'cause I I wanna learnmore about this.
Are you finding that your.
Seeing things as you go fromconference to nationals to
second round, you're seeing someof these teams, what they're
doing, how they're attacking.
(32:26):
Are you making mental changes asyou're doing that?
Are you taking notes?
Definitely.
Yeah.
I think it's really important tolearn from how other great
programs are doing things.
You don't maybe have to adopteverything, but I think it's
great to challenge your ideas asfar as systems go, as far as.
Offense goes, defensivepositioning, all kinds of stuff.
So I think it's been reallyinteresting to see some
(32:49):
commonalities of what some topteams do, like s system-wise,
and then there's some teams whorun some unique things that it
just works for them.
Yeah.
So I think, yeah, justcontinuing to reflect on.
Why people do things and why Ichoose to do the things that I
do in my program and not beingmarried to a certain thing and
being adaptable based on ourpersonnel.
(33:09):
I'm not gonna always run a sixtwo, I'm not always gonna run a
five one.
Yeah, I'm not always gonna playperimeter defense we're gonna do
things and try to, yeah.
I think, yeah, I think thelearning piece is huge and
learning from other greatprograms is really valuable.
As well.
And like you said, schedulingtough through the year.
I think this past season we itreally helped us grow and we're
(33:31):
ready to face that level ofcompetition at the end of the
year.
And I'm looking to try to do thesame next year.
Yeah.
But yeah, just continuing to seethat competition every single
day and trying to rise above itand become one of those
consistent teams that are in thetournament, like we wanna be
known for that.
I think what it did for me, andI'm hearing that from you too.
(33:52):
You're be, again, you're veryhumble and I appreciate that and
I respect that, but I also heardit's also teaching me we're
doing the right things.
We don't have to change a wholelot.
Maybe we need another.
Another six, one outside, maybewe need Sure.
This or that.
To compete.
But what we're doing is right.
(34:12):
I think.
Yeah.
That's what I got out of myfirst couple of national
tournaments is for sure.
It was almost a confirmation.
To believe in myself as a coach.
Have you felt that?
Oh, definitely.
Yeah.
I think it's just so humbling toknow that once you make it to
that stage, there's 300 otherteams that aren't there.
So just like being in thatpercentage is really awesome.
(34:35):
And still like it's hard to not.
It's hard to not be disappointedwith how we finished, but it's
also hard to not be so proud ofthat finish of top 32.
Like it's hard to hang yourheads, but it also was like we
did have a goal of reaching theSweet 16, so it was.
A little bit of a sour taste,but that's just'cause of our
high standards.
So yeah, I think it wasvalidating and great, but also
(34:59):
just makes you even more hungrywhen you're that close, but that
far at the same time.
So yeah, just a bunch of greatthings from that.
That's pretty cool.
That's really cool.
Coach, this has been awesome.
I'm excited to talk a littlemore recruiting with you.
I wanna do a little rapid firewith you.
Let our audience get to know youa little bit better.
Okay.
Is there a favorite drill thatplayers pretend to hate but you
(35:22):
love running that you get stuffabout, I would say the pit drill
just coach on a box versus twokids and just all out defense
touching 10 balls and, yeah.
Yeah, that's there.
There's always some.
Friendly competition and justpushing'em to their limits.
That's always fun.
And when you got the whole teamaround each other, like
(35:42):
cheering, every time somebodygets a great touch or Yep.
Or whatnot, that's always superfun.
Yeah.
We had a drill like that.
We call it warrior drill.
Yeah.
I love those drills.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you weren't coachingvolleyball, what sport would you
coach?
I was the interim head tenniscoach a couple years ago, so I
guess I could say tennis.
There you go.
I really like basketball.
I don't have a ton of basketballknowledge, but I love the sport
(36:04):
and love watching it.
So I'd say probably an indoorsport I'm built for Inside you
and me, both.
You and me both.
Best volleyball gym you've everplayed or coached in?
Probably Hope last year.
That facility was incredible.
Yeah.
Be Becky's got a heck of afacility up there, doesn't she?
Yeah, it's great.
(36:24):
It's a great place to, to watchany sport.
Yeah.
Is there a coaching phrase yourplayers hear from you way too
often?
I'm sure there's a couple.
I'm trying to think of, what doI say with, I just, it's hard to
think of'em'cause you just sayit without, you don't think, you
don't, you may hear it all thetime, but you don't.
Yeah.
Make a move.
Job's not done.
I don't know.
It's silly stuff.
(36:45):
Just couple silly like that.
Yeah.
Job not done.
That's a great one.
Yeah.
All here's some fun ones.
Dogs or cats.
Cats.
I love dogs though.
But I have two cats at home.
You're a cat.
Your a cat for Yeah.
I go back and forth.
I don't have any pets, but I'vehad both over the years.
Go to Hype song for a big match.
Is there a song you love?
Ooh the team loves some Gorillathis year.
(37:08):
Anything by Gorilla or yeah.
Any good upbeat rap music we'reinto.
All right.
If your team were a movie, whatgenre would they be?
Comedy for sure.
That's great.
If you could bring back one oldschool volleyball rule, what
would it be?
Maybe the side out scoring.
(37:28):
Yeah.
I risk and reward the match.
I'm sure we wouldn't be playingfive set matches if we were
doing that, but Yeah.
Yeah, it could be interesting.
Just go ACE or air every time.
What's your coaching superpower?
Superpower hitting good downballs.
I don't know.
(37:52):
That's a good one.
Is there a part of who you areas a coach that makes you love
being a coach?
Is there a piece of it that justthat's my joy, that's where I
get my joy from this.
Oh yeah.
Just when you see a kid work sohard trying to execute a skill
or.
Really anything and then theyfinally get it and they're so
(38:14):
excited about it.
Like those are the moments thatare so fun as a coach.
And yeah, just seeing the teamhave success after they work so
hard and you see'em doing X, Y,and Z all year, and then they
get to have a little bit ofthat, that, yeah, that success
and excitement is, makeseverything worth it when that
light bulb goes off.
Yep.
Definitely clicks.
(38:35):
Yeah.
Coach, you're awesome.
I'm so glad we got to meet.
I'm so impressed with you andexcited to talk a little
recruiting with you, but thanksfor doing this.
Yeah, thanks so much for havingme.
It's been fun.
That was my conversation withCoach Kara Davis, head
volleyball coach at theUniversity of Dubuque.
If you're listening as a coach,you probably heard it right
away.
The intentionality, thehumility, and the deep respect
(38:58):
she has for her players, herstaff, and the process.
And if you're listening as anadministrator or an aspiring
head coach, you heard somethingeven more powerful.
A leader who understands thatculture isn't something you talk
about.
It's something you live everysingle day.
Cara success speaks for itself.
But what really stands out mostto me is how grounded she is in
(39:22):
the why she coaches and whoshe's leading.
This is what significance lookslike in coaching discipline,
paired with joy, toughness,paired with connection and
standards that never waver.
And this conversation isn'tdone.
Coming up Monday on theSignificant recruiting podcast,
coach Davis joins me again tobreak down the recruiting side
(39:44):
of the journey, what Divisionthree coaches are actually
looking for, how families shouldevaluate fit, and how recruits
can position themselves honestlyand effectively in today's
recruiting landscape.
If you're a parent, a recruit.
Or a club or high school coach,you won't want to miss that
episode.
As always, you can find allepisodes, resources, and tools
(40:06):
for your coaching and recruitingjourney@coachmattrogers.com.
Until next time, stay focused onwhat you can control.
Stay humble and keep chasingsignificance.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com