I remember that was the tag line for field of dreams, but I don't remember exactly what the movie was about. I guess that's marketing.
I was reading my BSF lesson today and thought about how difficult it is to aggregate like minded people into a group with a purpose. It isn't hard to form a group with a purpose - any team, church, business, class, etc has already done that. Neither is it uncommon to pull like minded people together. All radio shows, magazines, or groups of teenagers have already done that too. To combine the two is rare.
I hope that the idea of "community" and keeping the mission of the club in mind will help steer us towards a successful season. Like minded people working towards the same purpose. I guess everyone would need to state their purpose out loud so that we can be sure they all agree.....
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Culture of Success
So, as I listen to ESPN radio (podcasts) on a regular basis, now and again I come across something that prods me to reflect on my personal life. Today it was yesterday's podcast from the Collin Cowherd show. Collin remarks about the lack of parity in the NFL (this season), and muses that it is a fact that good teams will be good and bad teams will be bad.
Of course, the "team" is made up of ownership, management, coaches and players. It takes a lot of people to make something work, or not work. If you have like minded people then you will have consistency - good or bad.
So this gets me to thinking about the success that I've been fortunate enough to experience with volleyball. I don't put a list of my former players' accomplishments on our website (it seems a bit exploitative), but I'll provide some history to help you understand where I'm coming from.
All of the players that I have coached as seniors in high school have had the opportunity to play in college. Moreover, until the 2009 season (this is the season in wich we "hosted" an 18's team instead of our traditional model, and is also the only year that I did not coach the 18's team) all SportVolleyball seniors played in college. All of the players that I personally coached at the higher levels went on to PLAY their freshman year (zero redshirts) at the college they chose.
But this isn't just because I only choose players who are already good. It's quite the contrary as I have a long list of players and teams that I have been able to turn around in a short time (not due to players growing, getting private lessons while under my supervision, or bringing in new talent to the team). This list would include such recent examples as the Sport 18 club team in 2008, who until my involvment had failed to advance in any tournament they had played (pool play and out). After two weeks with the team (same roster), we won the next scheduled tournament. In 2009 I took over the Sport 16 VR team who had failed to advance to the gold bracket for half of their season, and lost almost all bracket games (pool and out) with the exception of playing much younger teams. After taking over, we advanced to gold and won matches in all non-major tournaments, and won big games in the major tournments. This team became so good that after the season it's players were poached by coaches who (seeing these players earlier in the year) believed the kids were not "volleyball players". But I digress......
Of course there are caviats in all of these claims. I do not include any player who quit at any point in the season (although quitting is not by itself the mark of a loser, but that's a post for another day). I don't include players who made the decision not to play in college because they just didn't want to interfere with their academic careers (there are only a couple of these kids - and I FULLY support that decision). So who do I include? Everyone else.
I agree that success is habitual, and inherent to an organization. It is clearly inherent to this organization. Is it because I am that good of a coach? I would like to think so, but that's not the whole story. I think it's because we have the right system. Over the years, the biggest complaint lodged against me is that I am too inclusive. I always take players that are too short, too clumsy, or too slow to play volleyball. By the end of the season we produce impact varsity players and impact collegiate players, but at the start of the season they certainly don't look as good as the end of the season.
Remember, it's ownership, management, coaching, and players that make the team. And as far as I know, we're the only club to include all of those things. Each successful player has parent involvement, the full resources of the club, is engaged with the coach and staff, and - most of all - is supportive of the methodology. In each case when a player has failed to meet their goals, one or more of those items is missing.
So, the success is habitual. And it does come from a community of people making it happen. I'll provide one last example, which I think encapsulates this post. There was a player who I had the fortune to coach for 3 years. In high school, this is a long 3 years - freshman to senior. She excelled on each team. Her fourth year she played for the same club, but a different coach. The team she played for had a different system altogether. It lacked parent involvement, did not engage the players as a team, and had no off-court development. After thriving for 3 years, she was statistically unproductive and eventually quit the team her senior year. I recently spoke to her, as she is in her freshman year at a D1 University (I highly reccomended her to the school she currently plays for, knowing her and her family over the years and discounting that particular club season) and she is doing great. She is succeeding in the classroom and on the court, and is seeing limited playing time as a true freshman (I love that statistic).
So, why the change? Did she get bad at volleyball for a year and then really good again? Of course not. The easy answer is coaching (me!), but this isn't complete since I'm not there at the University. It's complex. She's in the right environment with the right people doing the right jobs.
That is where this consistent success comes from. That's where our success comes from. Any warm body with good players on the team can win. But what sets my record apart is the involvement of the right people. Which is also why bragging about my accomplishments seems a bit exploitative - they're not really all mine.
Of course, the "team" is made up of ownership, management, coaches and players. It takes a lot of people to make something work, or not work. If you have like minded people then you will have consistency - good or bad.
So this gets me to thinking about the success that I've been fortunate enough to experience with volleyball. I don't put a list of my former players' accomplishments on our website (it seems a bit exploitative), but I'll provide some history to help you understand where I'm coming from.
All of the players that I have coached as seniors in high school have had the opportunity to play in college. Moreover, until the 2009 season (this is the season in wich we "hosted" an 18's team instead of our traditional model, and is also the only year that I did not coach the 18's team) all SportVolleyball seniors played in college. All of the players that I personally coached at the higher levels went on to PLAY their freshman year (zero redshirts) at the college they chose.
But this isn't just because I only choose players who are already good. It's quite the contrary as I have a long list of players and teams that I have been able to turn around in a short time (not due to players growing, getting private lessons while under my supervision, or bringing in new talent to the team). This list would include such recent examples as the Sport 18 club team in 2008, who until my involvment had failed to advance in any tournament they had played (pool play and out). After two weeks with the team (same roster), we won the next scheduled tournament. In 2009 I took over the Sport 16 VR team who had failed to advance to the gold bracket for half of their season, and lost almost all bracket games (pool and out) with the exception of playing much younger teams. After taking over, we advanced to gold and won matches in all non-major tournaments, and won big games in the major tournments. This team became so good that after the season it's players were poached by coaches who (seeing these players earlier in the year) believed the kids were not "volleyball players". But I digress......
Of course there are caviats in all of these claims. I do not include any player who quit at any point in the season (although quitting is not by itself the mark of a loser, but that's a post for another day). I don't include players who made the decision not to play in college because they just didn't want to interfere with their academic careers (there are only a couple of these kids - and I FULLY support that decision). So who do I include? Everyone else.
I agree that success is habitual, and inherent to an organization. It is clearly inherent to this organization. Is it because I am that good of a coach? I would like to think so, but that's not the whole story. I think it's because we have the right system. Over the years, the biggest complaint lodged against me is that I am too inclusive. I always take players that are too short, too clumsy, or too slow to play volleyball. By the end of the season we produce impact varsity players and impact collegiate players, but at the start of the season they certainly don't look as good as the end of the season.
Remember, it's ownership, management, coaching, and players that make the team. And as far as I know, we're the only club to include all of those things. Each successful player has parent involvement, the full resources of the club, is engaged with the coach and staff, and - most of all - is supportive of the methodology. In each case when a player has failed to meet their goals, one or more of those items is missing.
So, the success is habitual. And it does come from a community of people making it happen. I'll provide one last example, which I think encapsulates this post. There was a player who I had the fortune to coach for 3 years. In high school, this is a long 3 years - freshman to senior. She excelled on each team. Her fourth year she played for the same club, but a different coach. The team she played for had a different system altogether. It lacked parent involvement, did not engage the players as a team, and had no off-court development. After thriving for 3 years, she was statistically unproductive and eventually quit the team her senior year. I recently spoke to her, as she is in her freshman year at a D1 University (I highly reccomended her to the school she currently plays for, knowing her and her family over the years and discounting that particular club season) and she is doing great. She is succeeding in the classroom and on the court, and is seeing limited playing time as a true freshman (I love that statistic).
So, why the change? Did she get bad at volleyball for a year and then really good again? Of course not. The easy answer is coaching (me!), but this isn't complete since I'm not there at the University. It's complex. She's in the right environment with the right people doing the right jobs.
That is where this consistent success comes from. That's where our success comes from. Any warm body with good players on the team can win. But what sets my record apart is the involvement of the right people. Which is also why bragging about my accomplishments seems a bit exploitative - they're not really all mine.
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