Life as a Club Coach

After graduating I thought I had one career choice eliminated, coaching. Well it seems to me, that once I decide to eliminate an option it circles back around and I jump on the train again.

I honestly didn't think I had the knowledge to coach, but to stay involved (if I were in Iowa) I was planning of getting my officiating license. Well, I moved to Oregon and let that part go as well to focus on sports information. Well approximately 2 weeks after getting here, I started going to Pacific practices to play or help. I fully enjoyed being in the gym and after the season missed it. After thinking a bit I realized I could coach, I understand the game and with some guidance would easily be able to teach it. So I brought it up to Lena, the coach at Pacific. Little did I know she ran a large club program out here, Athena and asked if I would be willing to coach. I jumped on and am now co-coaching a 14s team and assisting with an 18s team, which means practice for 4 hours on Tuesday and Thursdays and 2 hours on Wednesdays in Beaverton.

I am not going to lie I was nervous about the 14s, they would take more patience and more energy to teach. But as time goes I love working with them because you can see the change in their playing more vividly and the lightbulb moments of understanding are awesome! Last weekend, I was flying solo as the coach for the 14s are our power league qualifier. The idea of the power league is you are ranked at a certain number and you want to work your way up the entire season by taking the ranking of the team you beat if they are higher. We started the day at 122.

Our first match we lost in three sets, with the final set going into extra points and ending 19-21. It was a heartbreaker, but my girls fought until the very last point. We bounced back winning the next two matches to finish 2nd in our pool. Leaving pool play we were up to 106 in the rankings. However, in the first match of crossover play we didn't serve receive well and lost momentum and dropped to 110. The last match of the day was by far the best, girls, who I was sure haven't been listening in practices, broke out of their shells and played awesome! We finished the day at 110, with a 3-2 record. I was proud of the effort they put in all day, because 5 matches over a 10 hour day takes a lot of stamina.

Along with their improvement on the court, they were complimented by CEVA (our volleyball region) officials on how well they ran the court when scorekeeping and officiating. In club volleyball, one of the teams that isn't playing has to do the scorebook, libero tracker, officiate and line judge. As the coach, I have to be the upper official, so the girls have to do everything else without my guidance. One of our matches was run very poorly and there were many delays that ruin the flow of the game. We followed by running the next match very smoothly, and an official and parent from another team thanked us!

I was proud of the girls all around, for everything they did that day! The represented Athena well and improved as individuals and a team!