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Dear Freshman, As your coach, I want you to know that your talents and abilities are valued, but so are the qualities that make you unique. As you start your college experience, there will be challenges and pressures that can make it easy to lose sight of who you are, but I encourage you to stay true to your values and maintain your character throughout your time here. I want you to work as hard as you can athletically and academically, but remember that you are more than you

Ever heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?” Nietzsche and Kelly Clarkson were both onto something, although I’m guessing Nietzsche didn’t expect his philosophy to eventually become a pop song. In athletics, weakness isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes the areas where you struggle are exactly where the most growth needs to happen. The key is being honest enough to identify those weaknesses and disciplined enough to work on them instead of hiding them, ma

As spring turns to summer, college life changes pretty quickly. NARPs, or what athletes jokingly call “non athletic regular people,” are thinking about summer jobs, vacations, internships, and having a little more freedom. For college volleyball players, summer looks a little different. Preseason comes fast, and what you do during those months matters. Summer is also one of those times when coaches learn a lot about their athletes without actually being around them every day.

Today's post looks at the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 21:28-32, and the message underneath it: sincerity matters more than saying the right words or making promises you don't keep. It's a parable about actions outweighing words, and about what's actually in someone's heart mattering more than what comes out of their mouth. That lesson lands hard on a college volleyball team, where a player's actions and her actual commitment to the goal are what determine whether the team

Respecting someone's beliefs and accepting someone's beliefs are not the same thing, but somewhere along the way we've started treating them like they are. Today, if you disagree with someone's worldview, you're often labeled intolerant, closed-minded, or even hateful, regardless of how respectfully you've treated that person. We've lost the ability to disagree well. Healthy debate has been replaced by hostility. Curiosity has given way to conformity. Instead of asking questi

For college athletes, being an athlete is rarely just something they do. It becomes part of how they see themselves. Their schedule revolves around practices, lifts, film, travel, competition, recovery, and their teammates. They spend years being introduced by their sport, recognized for their accomplishments, and measured by what they can contribute to a team. That athletic identity can build confidence, discipline, resilience, leadership, and an ability to handle pressure,

Conflict has shown up on every team I've ever coached, and honestly, on every team anyone has ever coached. That's not a flaw in the group. It's just what happens when a group of people care enough to compete together. What actually separates a good season from a rough one isn't whether conflict shows up. It's whether the team knows what to do with it once it does. Most of it starts small: a disagreement about strategy, a misread on what a play was supposed to look like, some

As the primary author of this site, you need to understand who I am as a person. I am sharing a personal story of faith, identity formation, and how these have shaped my life. This journey has been one filled with struggle and triumph; through it all, I remain passionate about helping others discover their potential in whatever way possible - whether this is through coaching or higher education. Being genuine and vulnerable as an author is important because it allows you (the