speaker-0: Welcome to the flight plan inside ALA Gilbert North Athletics. I'm your host, Matt Coleman. And today we are heading straight to the hardwood and we welcome Paris McFall, our new head girls varsity volleyball coach and program builder. Paris has brought energy to the girls program, and today we're going to discuss how to build a championship culture on and off the court. So, Paris, welcome to the show.
speaker-1: ⁓ Thanks a lot, Matt. It has been a wild ride so far this season, but it has been something that I have really enjoyed. ⁓ hello everyone. My name is Paris McFall. I am the girls head volleyball coach for Gilbert North this season. This is my first season with the program and with ALA and I have been nothing but impressed. ⁓ before kind of my journey to ALA, I come from Chicago, so that's where I was born and that's where I was raised. During that time, I played volleyball from, you know, junior high all the way through college, played up up in Wisconsin for a little bit, then played in Chicago to finish out my collegiate career. Then from there, I actually was a volleyball club director. Started off as a just a normal coach on like a sixteens team. Weirdly enough, I actually coached ⁓ Troy Cates, who is the men's volleyball coach here at Gilbert North ALA way back when. So
speaker-0: I'm sorry that you had to coach him.
speaker-1: Yeah, you know, it was fun. You know, it was it was definitely like a you know, volleyball's a small world and you know, to to come, you know, halfway across the country and somehow end up at the same high school was a was definitely a cool moment for us. But ⁓ started off coaching there and then kind of worked my way up to a lead coach, assistant director, then full-time director of the boys and girls program, both regional and nationally. Did that for about a decade, rose that club. Now they're the biggest, most prominent club, likely in the Northland, in the North Chicagoland area. Then we moved out to Arizona, you know, and here we are, moved out with my wife and my two dogs. ⁓ currently we live up in Scottsdale, but we ho hopefully we are gonna move closer to. to the school in the coming years and been here for about three years now. Getting used to the heat. The heat is no joke, but I'll I'll say this, yeah, I've I've I've heard the phrase that you can't shovel sunshine. So, you know, that's something that I that I stick to because I do not miss those bitter winters one bit.
speaker-0: You know, Paris, first of all, we're excited to have you lead our program. And I know that Troy, I all all joking aside, love Troy what he's the impact he's making as well. And ⁓ for those of you that don't know, you know, obviously I know Paris and and Troy, both great men leading two different ⁓ programs, same sport. But Paris and I have a connection through just, hey, we're both from Chicago and ⁓ and so we are, you know, Bears, Bulls Blackhawks kinda where we differ is, you know, Paris leans towards the White Sox, the South Side. I'm a north sider. And ⁓ so, you know, last night or yesterday I think ⁓ I think the White Sox had a good night. The Cubs not so much.
speaker-1: Hey, you know, we're both playing postseason baseball for the time being, so we'll we'll be excited about that.
speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Okay. So let's let's start at the beginning. So I know you talked about your your journey. You've done a lot with volleyball. So every coach has a unique journey that really shapes how they lead. So in talking, just talking through your background, kind of talk about the various aspects of those, like from high coaching high school to coaching a club level to leading a club. How has that built you into the leader that you are today?
speaker-1: Good question. You know, I think it starts back to my playing days. You know, starting off, you know, I came from a not an inner city school, but a school just outside the city. You know, boys volleyball at the time growing up was still a very niche sport, very, very small community. Not a lot of schools, at least in the national level, you know, many states still don't have boys volleyball sanctioned as a high school sport. Chicago fortunately has been sanctioned for quite a while. We've had boys volleyball pretty competitively in the suburban towns. And so I was able to play from a young age, but never on anything that was structured until I got more to the high school level. I played club for all of two years. ⁓ but I think it kind of started there. It started with my with my club routes. I started off at a club that was more of a family feel. You know, everyone knew everyone. It was a really, really small club. It was my first iteration of volleyball club. And then, you know, as I got more competitive and as I wanted to drive myself, I wanted to kind of elevate the club that I was at. And so I went to a club that was known to be more of a military style club, high reps, no nonsense type of club. And And I thrive in those situations as a player. And so from there, you know, that club really gave me a lot of a lot of opportunities to develop and also coach. They run a ton of summer camps across the nation. Sports Performance Volleyball Club was that club out in Aurora, Illinois. And from there, they were really big on having current players come back and coach over the summer. And quite honestly, it was a good summer job. We got paid pretty well. We we traveled, got to hang out with a lot of our friends, got to meet new people, meet new coaches. And that's really how I started my affinity for coaching as I got more and more into it. I really loved the light bulb moments. I really love kind of teaching the girls other ways and boys, other ways where, you know, they can help bridge that gap between what they've done before in the past, other sports, other maneuvers that can actually translate to volleyball pretty well. Then as I kind of worked up through there, it's just all about building relationships. I've been a big, big family guy as far as, you know, making everyone feel like they can come up to me, talk to me, be transparent. But at the same time, that military style club really instilled like the no nonsense, the process. You know, we can be happy with the result. I'm kind of quoting Nick Sabin here a little bit, but you know, he's really big on, you know, we can be, we can get the win, but but the but the process that we took to get there. cannot be sat s satisfactory. And I think that that's something that I really hold on to. You know, everyone wants to get that win, but are you willing to do the dirty work? Are you willing to train for that 1%? And that's just a mentality thing. And I bring that from I think even a young age, I come from a military family. So that kind of makes sense probably why I kind of hone more into that military style of training, which is funny because I don't coach like that necessarily. Right. I will demand a lot from my from my athletes. I will push them beyond what they feel is comfortable within means ⁓ and just kind of elevate the standard. I think a lot of times athletes, young athletes, they are okay with not being mediocre, but they're okay with all the nonsense that can come with practices and being with your friends and being okay with missing reps and being okay and laughing off things. And it's like at some point when we start to get competitive at the varsity level, like there has to be that change mentality. When you're younger, totally we're about getting the game, growing the game, having fun. you know, developing a love for the sport. But then as you get older, like that love needs to turn more into like, okay, how am I getting better than the goal across for me? How am I going to impact my teammates? How am I going to impact the game, both on and off the court. So I'm really big on the process on getting us to a point more than necessarily the game. And the girls can probably tell you that too. Like I, I hate losing. And it's not that I hate losing against a competitive team. I hate losing when I know we were not our best. And You know, being a younger team, we have a coup a couple of seniors, but but but we are heavy on the younger side. And some of the f growing pains this year has been a lot of that. Just a lot of just, you know, developing that killer mentality of developing what I call a dog mentality. Cause we need to be dogs on the court. Like and if, you know, we need to be dogs to steal sets that that we shouldn't steal and that we shouldn't win and to really put the foot on the gas when we're supposed to and close out sets quickly. Yeah.
speaker-0: No, I love all of that and your approach. And I've admired just kind of s you know, watching practices here and there, even when people, you know, normally can't see me, just kind of even peeking through in through the window and just watching how you and your coaching staff go about teaching the game and even your coaching style on the sideline. So, you know, we talk a lot about culture here at ALA Gilbert North. And it's not something that we it's not something that we just kind of talk through. We We actually, when we get into it, we have tangible things that we do that look a little bit different from sport to sport. So when you stepped into the gym on day one, what was one of your core coaching philosoph philosophies, I guess you could say, or philosophy, that you really talked to the girls first and foremost about? And then a part of that, how do you go about building that that culture with the girls program?
speaker-1: Yeah, you know, for me it starts just by getting to know them. I'm I'm really big at at connecting with athletes, talking to them about their day, their music, you know, what they have going on outside of a school, how they're doing in school. You know, little things like that to me makes that bridge and connects. That's to me is my kind of superpower in a way. I feel like I can connect with any athletes with given time. And to me, I really just let them and I I encourage them on the individualism side of things. I think a lot of times young athletes wanna all conform to the same ideology of how they look, how they dress, how they act, how they go th how they go about their day. And, you know, more and more, especially in athletics, we are seeing more of a understanding of letting athletes be athletes within their own right and, you know, not trying to conform them robotically or technically to t to the person next to them. Yes. You know A lot of times when I was growing up, especially in the club that I was in, like everyone needed to look the same, walk the same, dress the same, you know, move the same on the court. And there's a time and a place for that. And I understand that piece of it. But, you know, like I mentioned earlier, it's something where today's athletes are not the same athletes from yesterday. Like it is it is a whole new world. Like I have a couple of girls now that are all over six feet, and that is not something that was very common years ago, especially in the high school gym. And so it's like, look, you might do something a little bit different, but that's okay. And we're gonna we're gonna use that. We're gonna hone it as long as you're not doing anything anatomically wrong to your body and you're harming your body. Why who am I to change that if you are high-level elite? Sure there's there's small tweaks, sure there's things to help you be more consistent. ⁓ but that's really what I hone into. And so as I get to know the girls, as I get to know them throughout the season, it's a lot of just doing that when I come into practices. I don't talk about volleyball for the first 30 minutes. It's all about talking to the girls about other things, getting to know them, and then from there, I establish by doing. So I write all my practices on the whiteboard. We go through everything in detail right before practice starts. We do what's called vitamins every single day because you need your vitamins in life. And I call them vitamins in volleyball. And you know, we need those reps every day. We do them now. We the USA team does them on on the national level. And just really bringing them a lot of what I have experience-wise to the core to show them: hey, I'm not just someone out here talking to talk to talk just to do that. Like I've done this, I've talked to coaches. I've been in their gyms. I've been in Northwestern's gym up in Chicago. I've been in UCF's gym, which is University of Central Florida down in Florida and and Orlando. I've been to Texas State. I've been to a school out in Oregon. So, you know, I have picked the brains of a lot of collegiate coaches and I've been fortunate to work with with a lot of them. You know, one of them being Shane Davis down in Loyola, the Loyola University up in Chicago. He is like a three time, four time national champion. He left to go to Northwestern, went back to the Loyola. I mean, a lot of my coaching style probably stems from them. Some call him stoic on the sidelines. And, you know, I do tend to resemble some of that within reason. I I am a little bit more passionate, maybe, and I might show a little bit more emotion. But especially being in the girls' sport, I encourage them, like, hey, why, why hold back? Get that fiery attitude, show that emotion, show that drive. And then every day it's just showing up. And being the same version of myself. It's making sure that I also learn from my mistakes. I'm very vocal about that with the girls, but it's also challenging them as well. I think a lot of times comfortability can be a downfall of a team and it's just about pushing them to be uncomfortable. And again, I'll go back to the process. I'm really, really big on the nitty-gritty details. And so even for some of my best players, they have seen a change. From the summer Paris, where I was a little bit more laissez faire, a little bit more, hey, like let's just have some fun, get some reps, to like, hey, now now we're on a varsity team and you're my best player. You're leading the state in kills, and I need you to act and do that every single day. You can't take a playoff. You're not, you aren't, you know, you're not able to do that with your presence, with your stature. So just getting them to understand that piece of bit every single day in the practice gym when we go into match play ⁓ and just being consistent with the con with the conversation and the language.
speaker-0: Yeah, love that. Three three things kind of stuck out to me. One was taking the vitamins. I love grabbing ideas from other coaches. And so you have to take your vitamins every day. So what does it look like? You know, if the coach is listening to this podcast, it's okay, what what vitamins can you give out, you know, every day? I love that the fact that you talked about connection. I remember decades ago, and it's kind of showing my age, but when I first started coaching girls. One of the things that I learned was that it was really hard for me as a young coach to get the girls to be focused during practice. Cause they were talking about everything from A to Z. And I was talking to, you know, I went to a seasoned coach, you know, a mentor of mine that said, Hey, I'm just, I'm having a hard time of getting my team to focus during practice. So one of the things that they said is, listen, the girls are going to talk about their day, regardless if you're going to bring it up or not. So why don't you take the first 10 minutes of practice and just talk about their day, what went well, what didn't go well, and then talk about, okay, here's the benefit, whether you had a great day or a bad day, you're gonna have an unbelievable day because now you get to focus for the next hour and a half to two hours on the game of lacrosse, right? When I made that switch and I actually gave them the opportunity to talk through their day and what went well and what didn't. The talking during practice and the focus, talking during practice went down and the focus went extremely much higher. Mm-hmm. Just because I gave them that opportunity to kind of talk through. And when we talked through that day, you know, like in your point of saying being connection, like the girls understood that I really cared about their lives outside of the game of lacrosse, you know, that I was coaching at the time. You know? And
speaker-1: Yep.
speaker-0: And and I love the fact that you talked about honesty of just, hey, being able to admit as coaches, when we make mistakes and to let our team know about it, that's not an easy thing to do.
speaker-1: ⁓ It's not. It's puts you in a very vulnerable state. And, you know, I think a lot of times we we demand a lot from our athletes and we demand perfection. But I think seeing having them see you in a vulnerable state and have that be vice versa gives them that same confidence that, hey, if I mess up on the court, if if I might not take that ball that I should take, I know that Paris and our coaching staff has confidence in me to kind of rebound. And that's something that our girls have learned, they've learned to kind of understand from my coaching style is that you're gonna earn rope. For me through practice and how you show up every day, how you communicate to your teammates, how you show up in school. So then when we get to match play, you have more rope to play with, quote unquote, right? Where if you make a mistake, I'm not gonna yank you out right away. I'm gonna give you a couple more. And I had my girls yesterday in practice, I was like, hey, who here? Raise your hand if I've subbed you out after one mistake. And no one, they all kind of laughed and like kind of looked around and I was like, exactly. Like I understand like this game is. It's a high technique driven game. Every point ends on an error, however you want to look at it. And it's a game up to 25. It's a it's a beautiful game where every game's worth or every point's just worth one. And you know, as long as you can swing together two on every serve, you'll win every match. So yeah. That's a very simplistic way of looking at volleyball. But it's it's a way that I'm trying to get the girls to understand, like, hey, you're you're gonna go through it in the and the athletes, the best athletes probably usually have the highest errors, especially when you look at the collegiate level. The teams and players that are leading the nation in aces are also leading the nation in errors. And so it's like you gotta have this risk reward and you can't be scared of that risk. Otherwise you'll never be the leading person in in your category.
speaker-0: That's great. I mean, you're giving out some great pointers, vitamins, ropes, you know. So I I appreciate that. Okay, so let's look at looking ahead. This is your first year. So every day is a new day for you. And every event is a new event. And so I I realize that you probably have a better picture at the end of this first season, but we're we're not there. What is your vision for the program? So when you are sitting around and you're thinking about the program three years from now. What does ALA Gilbert North and Girls Volleyball look like on the court and in the community three years from now? What do you what do you want us to look like?
speaker-1: Yeah, you know, three years from now, quite honestly, like I would hope we are in the state final at some point in the next three years. You know, I I firmly believe that, even from this season, you know, we're we're losing games that are winnable. And I think that the girls are understanding that and we're we're working through a lot of that pain and a lot of that learning. But on the court it's just about our relentless pursuit, our relentless nature, like I I try to really communicate this and articulate this to our girls this season. But like I mentioned earlier, we have some taller athletes. We have some athletes that have played for, you know, high level clubs and whether they started or didn't start. And it's just about, hey, like, yeah, you did all that, but it's almost like what have you done for me lately? It's a whole thing about, you know, the best coach in football ain't even coaching at the on the same team right now where he won six championships being Bill Belichick for the Patriots. So it's like, yes, you you've done all these things, but that doesn't change what I need you to do now. And so for some of them, it's about building up their confidence and building that kind of killer instinct. I do think we the volleyball community is a nice community. I'm on the girls and boys side, but I think oftentimes we we mistake that niceness for not driving ourselves to compete at a high level. The biggest compliment that you can give any team is competing hard. Whether you win 25-0 or you win 25-23, that's the biggest compliment that that you can give any team. And on our side, it's about demanding nothing nothing but that as far as our effort, our communication. And I've told the girls this time and time again. It's like when when we when we are losing to teams, it is not because we are not more talented than them. We have all the talent in the world, but it is about the grittiness and it's about that dog mentality of, hey, Are you going to do the the the dirty work and practice? Are you gonna lay your body on the line? Are you not gonna worry about being pitch perfect? And I don't know about most sports, but I actually I do know. I think most sports probably deal with something very similar where you give the kids something, you give them an action, they go out there and something very different happens than what you just told them. And then they kind of look at you, kind of like, coach, you told me that this was gonna happen. It's like, yes. But that is just one aspect of this game. The moment that you get something different, that Information has to influence change, has to influence a decision to you to either A, stick to the game plan, or B understand what you've been taught, what we practice, and then execute differently. So it's giving them a lot of that. It's giving them a lot of the IQ part of the game, developing their eyes. And so for me on the court, if we are we are gonna be a high IQ team, our eyes are gonna be great through the net, and we are going to make you. lose your mind defensively because we are going to be so scrappy and so competitive in those like dirty points that we're gonna frustrate teams and we're going to hopefully, you know, put ourselves in a position where we can compete during playoffs and be at the state championship in the next three years. But I firmly believe with with the talent that we have and the mentality that's changing with the program, I think we're gonna get there. And as far as off the court, it's just about being good humans. I'm all about that. And I tell the girls this all the time. We have to be good people. And when you leave this program, like I'm building, I'm trying to build an alumni presence that which isn't here right now for the volleyball program, where we get girls to come back and kind of, you know, play against them, have an alumni game, go out and do something in the community. In my first year here, we haven't had a ton of that opportunity, I will say. But that is a big focus of me going into into future years and even for the rest of the season is how can we impact our community. But I think the biggest way that we could do that without doing any servant leadership is just going out and representing our program by being good students, welcoming that person that's sitting alone at a table, being a family for this season. And that's really my my goal for the program off the court is to positively impact the school, positively impact the community. So when they are going out, you know, and and athletes and employers and coaches are getting players from my program, there's a stark difference between them and the person next to them who's the same age and maybe didn't play for me.
speaker-0: use two words when you were talking through what we would look like in three years and that's relentless pursuit. The definite is the act of following in order to overtake, capture, or kill, right? It's it's not something that you're doing at fifty percent. It's something it's very intentional. And honestly, we can already see that in your first season here. All right, so high school sports, it's a family commitment and having everybody on the same page, it's vital.
speaker-1: Uh-huh.
speaker-0: How do you approach communication with parents? Every coach, every athletic department struggles with this. What is your philosophy on navigating through those conflicts or disagreements? Because they're going to be happening throughout the season when they, when they do pop up, you know, what's what's your philosophy on on navigating those conflicts?
speaker-1: Yeah, it's always gonna be player first. I think, especially when you start to get a y a younger athlete, it's about trying to not sever that that parental guidance, so to speak, but it's just it's just about how can we let these players advocate for themselves more and have those uncomfortable conversations. I talked a little bit about a little bit ago about building, you know, better people outside the community, and that's part of it. It's like you're gonna have d difficult conversations with an employer. You're gonna have a difficult conversation with the syndicate other or your family member, and you have to be the one having that discussion. And so I'm very clear from day one with my parents of hey, this is my c communication chain of command, so to speak. It's always gonna be player first. Cause at the end of the day, you're not in practice every day. Your daughter is. And so your daughter needs to be the one that comes up to me and talks to me about X, Y, or Z. From there, if things aren't resolved, then the coach and that player will bring me in. We'll try to have some more dialogue. And I will say about 99.9% of the time, everything is pretty much taken care of after I step in with that coach. If something might have been misconstrued. A player heard this from their coach. The coach said that they said something different. So I kind of come and immediate that part a little bit and kind of give them, like, hey, no, like your coach is right. Like, you know, you kind of have to understand and kind of listen to what they're telling you. And then from there, then the hopefully the parents will understand. And I will say if they do have to go one step further, the parent does get involved, and then obviously we'll bring you in or the athletic director in at that point if it gets to that case. But the parents here so far have been great. I've only I've had like one small conversation. No, I've had about a couple. A couple conversations where it wasn't so much about parents reaching out and like saying, like, hey, my daughter deserves this. They just want to know information. And I'm super, super transparent. I don't hide anything. And that comes from my club directing days and club volleyball. And you know, as a as a as a volleyball dad, like club sports are ruthless in a way. Like you gotta make your difference between the club down the road from you and what's and what's gonna make that parent choose you. And we made a very early decision as a club, we are going to be the best communicators. out of anyone around us. And that is how we are going to win families over. Like yes, the athletes want to go somewhere, but we knew parents are gonna make the decision at the time 'cause they're the ones paying for it. That's right. And then we win them over by our training and our philosophy once they're in our gym. And so communication for me was instilled during my time as a club director, my mentor Derek Jensen. Shout out to him. Like he really, really molded me into that type of person. And I made mistakes along the way for sure. I wasn't perfect, but he molded me and gave me the grace and the patience to kind of learn on my own and kind of make sure that I understood the reasoning behind it. And now, you know, five, 10 years later, I can I couldn't thank that man enough for that because I lead that into my professional life with Starbucks and then also as a coaching, as a philosophy in that as well.
speaker-0: Stated. It's a partnership with parents, right? And we know that we're gonna have disagreements. We know that we're gonna have these issues throughout the season where I love your analogy of just, hey, it's player first. Let's let's teach them how to advocate for themselves. So one thing that they you should know about me, if you don't already know, is that I I love Ted Lasso and I'm in season four. Have you ever watched Ted Lasso?
speaker-1: I know I watched this first season with during my Apple I had like an Apple Plus trial and so I watched it. Loved the show and then my my subscription ran out and I hadn't
speaker-0: We've all been there. I didn't have it and the new season was coming up and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna I'm gonna do it now. They're very creative though, you know, they don't put all the season on at one time so that you hadn't have to have a longer subscription. But as soon as it's done, I'm telling everybody I'm done with Apple. I've really enjoyed his approach and honestly the leadership lessons that we can learn. There's a famous scene where a player makes a mistake and Ted kind of pulls him inside and and and and says this, you know what the happiest animal on earth is, it's a goldfish. And you want to know why? It's got a 10 second memory. So he's like, hey, the challenge is just be a goldfish. So volleyball, it's fast-paced game of momentum and mistakes going back and forth. How do you teach your players to have that goldfish mentality and immediately move on to the next point? Do you have a do you have a code word? Do you have a signal? What do you do?
speaker-1: It's just intent. I'm really big on it on intention. So when you are going to do something, whether it's you're taking a step out of your base to go cover line or to cover cross, or you're blocking line versus cross or hitting vice versa, it's something where intent is a big thing. Like you have to have a reasoning to why you're doing something, especially at the highest level. Something needs to influence your decision. It can't just be. I like coach told me to be here. So I'm gonna stay in here, but the ball went there and I didn't move. And needs to be the opposite of, hey, I know coach told me to stay in base, but I saw that the setter was up front row. So I'm gonna actually cave in a little bit and then I'm gonna get this tip if I need to. And then I'm gonna have to work my butt off to actually get to where I need to if the ball is set elsewhere. And that is something that is being slowly ingrained into our team. It's something that we are we saw a little bit last night as we won against Post and Butte, something that We we've been wavering with over the last weekend with our tournaments about like, yes, guys, like we are gonna give you answers to the test, quote unquote, or so to speak. And you have to take that. And it's all gonna be influence and information in your Rolodex. And like if your Rolodex is full, you can go in there and you can pick out when you've seen that before and influence that decision to put you in a better position. Volleyball is a game of errors. So you're gonna make an error, right? But was your intent correct? Were you diving with the intent of getting the ball up, or were you diving just because I told you to dive? And to me, that's the starting difference between a great player and a very mediocre player is like again, talent can put you in the right spot, but grit determination, intent is gonna actually convert that into a good dig, a good swing, a good set. And so that's something that we are really, really trying to hammer home with the girls every practice, every game, every time out. And the girls can tell you again, like, I will never lose my cool if the intent is always there. I start to kind of get a little frustrated when balls drop, no one goes for it. The ball is set 50 feet inside, and our hitter just goes and blasts the ball in the net. It's like, yes, I know. Was that a hard attack? A hundred percent. But I know we've trained you to do something specific and you were mentally not you're kind of mentally weak in that instance and you forgot about that. And so your intention wasn't there. And so just having them understand that part of the game is going to elevate us substantially when it comes to when we play other teams. Cause even last night, I would say we got outworked for a majority of that match, but we were more talented until that fifth set where we put talent with hard work and then we the team couldn't even come close to us. We we won 15-9 in the fifth. And so it's just like that's the that's a love-hate relationship. With coaching, especially when you have a team that you're trying to ingrain a different culture that has been here in the past. And I'm learning it in real time. And so I'm learning how to be patient and but I'm also learning when to turn the fire on when I need to. And it's it's funny because I, you know, the girls think I talked about another instance with my boys' team years ago where I kind of lost it on them because they deserved it. And they were like, Well, coach, have you lost it on us? Yeah, I'm like, I was like, guys, you've seen me be like assertive. You have not seen me lose my cool with you quite yet. And I hope you never do. Because it's not a fun sight. I don't love doing it, but I will do it when necessary. I mean, even with our best players, I had to sub out, you know, one of my top middles in the state last night because I wanted to make a point. She was doing what I felt wasn't her best. I felt like her movements weren't the best. And so I made a point. And I was like, look, at some point as a coaching staff, we have to not once we've given them enough of the information and enough of the tools to get the things done, the the c the coddleness and the training wheels have to come off at some point. ⁓ the point has to be made. And so To her credit, and I gave her that tip after the game, I was like, hey, you came out for a couple of points, but when I put you back in, you are a completely different player. And that's the version of you that I need. And that's why you got out, is because that version wasn't the version that I was getting. And so that is the only reason why you came out. And that's ever the only reason why I subbed my athletes out, is just to give them that mental break. Cause again, I know what they can get to, even if they can't see it yet. ⁓ it's just about really getting them to understand that part of the game is the process of how we get things done.
speaker-0: You know, about a minute or two ago you used the word Rolodex. Do the girls have you ever used that term with the girls and do the girls actually know what a Rolodex is?
speaker-1: You know, it's funny you say that 'cause as I said it, I don't know what All right. I think I might use the the phrase cataloging now. Catalog it.
speaker-0: Yeah, cataloging. There you Love it. So before we go, we always like to look at the bigger picture of life. And we are in the business of building just great people, as you said earlier before, not just great athletes. So if you could give our listeners, student athletes, parents, coaches who are tuning in, give us two or three tips on just how to become a better human being every single day. What would that look like to you?
speaker-1: Yeah, being a better human being is just treating others with kindness and patience, you know, assuming best intent. ⁓ a lot of times, especially like there's a guy that I follow, I forget his name, there's a podcast that I listen to where he mentions a story about when if you're driving on the highway and someone cuts you off, our first instinct is to kinda put up the middle finger, swear up and down, you know, curse them, whatever. But what if that person's driving to the emergency room? What if they're driving because their wife is pregnant or someone passed away? Like you don't know what that person's going through. So Leading with that, leading with that has been something that I've taken really hold to me. Treating us with with kindness, how I mentioned before. ⁓ same kind of baseline, right? It's like everyone has their own problems and things that they're going through. And the best thing that I can do in the moment that I'm with you is just, you know, be positive. Like I'm gonna treat you like any other human. I don't care if you're someone that is homeless, if you're someone that has a mom and a dad, parents that are divorced, like you're gonna get the same version of me that you're gonna get no matter what. And to really have the Kids understand the human side of life. And sometimes we forget about that. And so just to just to be a good human, whether that's picking up a trash, whether that's holding the door open for someone that's coming in behind you, all those chivalry things that we don't see all the time anymore. But to some of my girls' credits, they they were talking about their boyfriends and how they all open the door for them and they do, I was like, that's fantastic. And I'm just like, that is what I'm loved to hear. And so just it's just little things like that. ⁓ then lastly, I would say is It's kind of a phrase from Steph Curry is like confidence isn't something you feel. It's something you earn with relentless will and p in practice. And you know, whether that's in life, in your professional world, in school, and in in athletics, like you earn your confidence because you know you put in the work to be that successful and to come out and be on that main stage. And so that is another one that I think is so so true that you you have to have relentless will. You have to wanna be the best. You I'm gonna use some Starbucks phrases here because I work for them, but if you're just a barista, why not be the best barista possible? If you are a shift supervisor, be the best shift supervisor possible. And no matter your level, and that's from from a very young age, military family again, and still from my grandparents, like you need to be the best version. I don't care what you do in life, but be the best at it. And like, so whatever that is for the girls, whether that's being a streamer in the future. A YouTube streamer, whether that's being a doctor, whether that's being a garbage woman, whatever that might be, you know, be the best person for that job and you will always get noticed and you will always be where you're supposed to be if you lead like that.
speaker-0: That's great insight and great reminders. Thank you for sharing that. I can tell you the more and more that I get to know you, the more and more I get to see you coach, your your coaching philosophy of the staff and how, you know, the the seen and unseen things that you do. You know, we we as a school, we're thrilled to have you leading the charge in our girls volleyball program. And I'm really excited about the future. And I I just want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today.
speaker-1: No, thank you, Matt. It's been it's been a pleasure. It's it's always nice to talk just to have that that coach side talk or that chalk talk. And you know, I do think from my early time with the interview process, I remember telling my wife after the interview, I was like, Man, I've interviewed at three places today, all on the same day. But, you know, if if ALA calls me back tomorrow, I'm taking ALA right away. So I've been really impressed with the school, your staff, the girls, the family, the community. I mean I'm excited for years to come of of what we can do here.
speaker-0: So to our listeners and parents, athletes, coaches tuning in, be sure to check out our Instagram account for upcoming volleyball matches and come out and support our girls' volleyball teams. Over the next few weeks, you can see them play at home on what is it, ⁓ October the twelfth, October the 14th, and the 20th. Those are just the next few home matches that we have. ⁓ but thank you for tuning in to the flight plan. And I'm Matt Coleman, and we'll see you next time. Yeah.
speaker-1: ⁓ Thanks a lot, Matt. It has been a wild ride so far this season, but it has been something that I have really enjoyed. ⁓ hello everyone. My name is Paris McFall. I am the girls head volleyball coach for Gilbert North this season. This is my first season with the program and with ALA and I have been nothing but impressed. ⁓ before kind of my journey to ALA, I come from Chicago, so that's where I was born and that's where I was raised. During that time, I played volleyball from, you know, junior high all the way through college, played up up in Wisconsin for a little bit, then played in Chicago to finish out my collegiate career. Then from there, I actually was a volleyball club director. Started off as a just a normal coach on like a sixteens team. Weirdly enough, I actually coached ⁓ Troy Cates, who is the men's volleyball coach here at Gilbert North ALA way back when. So
speaker-0: I'm sorry that you had to coach him.
speaker-1: Yeah, you know, it was fun. You know, it was it was definitely like a you know, volleyball's a small world and you know, to to come, you know, halfway across the country and somehow end up at the same high school was a was definitely a cool moment for us. But ⁓ started off coaching there and then kind of worked my way up to a lead coach, assistant director, then full-time director of the boys and girls program, both regional and nationally. Did that for about a decade, rose that club. Now they're the biggest, most prominent club, likely in the Northland, in the North Chicagoland area. Then we moved out to Arizona, you know, and here we are, moved out with my wife and my two dogs. ⁓ currently we live up in Scottsdale, but we ho hopefully we are gonna move closer to. to the school in the coming years and been here for about three years now. Getting used to the heat. The heat is no joke, but I'll I'll say this, yeah, I've I've I've heard the phrase that you can't shovel sunshine. So, you know, that's something that I that I stick to because I do not miss those bitter winters one bit.
speaker-0: You know, Paris, first of all, we're excited to have you lead our program. And I know that Troy, I all all joking aside, love Troy what he's the impact he's making as well. And ⁓ for those of you that don't know, you know, obviously I know Paris and and Troy, both great men leading two different ⁓ programs, same sport. But Paris and I have a connection through just, hey, we're both from Chicago and ⁓ and so we are, you know, Bears, Bulls Blackhawks kinda where we differ is, you know, Paris leans towards the White Sox, the South Side. I'm a north sider. And ⁓ so, you know, last night or yesterday I think ⁓ I think the White Sox had a good night. The Cubs not so much.
speaker-1: Hey, you know, we're both playing postseason baseball for the time being, so we'll we'll be excited about that.
speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Okay. So let's let's start at the beginning. So I know you talked about your your journey. You've done a lot with volleyball. So every coach has a unique journey that really shapes how they lead. So in talking, just talking through your background, kind of talk about the various aspects of those, like from high coaching high school to coaching a club level to leading a club. How has that built you into the leader that you are today?
speaker-1: Good question. You know, I think it starts back to my playing days. You know, starting off, you know, I came from a not an inner city school, but a school just outside the city. You know, boys volleyball at the time growing up was still a very niche sport, very, very small community. Not a lot of schools, at least in the national level, you know, many states still don't have boys volleyball sanctioned as a high school sport. Chicago fortunately has been sanctioned for quite a while. We've had boys volleyball pretty competitively in the suburban towns. And so I was able to play from a young age, but never on anything that was structured until I got more to the high school level. I played club for all of two years. ⁓ but I think it kind of started there. It started with my with my club routes. I started off at a club that was more of a family feel. You know, everyone knew everyone. It was a really, really small club. It was my first iteration of volleyball club. And then, you know, as I got more competitive and as I wanted to drive myself, I wanted to kind of elevate the club that I was at. And so I went to a club that was known to be more of a military style club, high reps, no nonsense type of club. And And I thrive in those situations as a player. And so from there, you know, that club really gave me a lot of a lot of opportunities to develop and also coach. They run a ton of summer camps across the nation. Sports Performance Volleyball Club was that club out in Aurora, Illinois. And from there, they were really big on having current players come back and coach over the summer. And quite honestly, it was a good summer job. We got paid pretty well. We we traveled, got to hang out with a lot of our friends, got to meet new people, meet new coaches. And that's really how I started my affinity for coaching as I got more and more into it. I really loved the light bulb moments. I really love kind of teaching the girls other ways and boys, other ways where, you know, they can help bridge that gap between what they've done before in the past, other sports, other maneuvers that can actually translate to volleyball pretty well. Then as I kind of worked up through there, it's just all about building relationships. I've been a big, big family guy as far as, you know, making everyone feel like they can come up to me, talk to me, be transparent. But at the same time, that military style club really instilled like the no nonsense, the process. You know, we can be happy with the result. I'm kind of quoting Nick Sabin here a little bit, but you know, he's really big on, you know, we can be, we can get the win, but but the but the process that we took to get there. cannot be sat s satisfactory. And I think that that's something that I really hold on to. You know, everyone wants to get that win, but are you willing to do the dirty work? Are you willing to train for that 1%? And that's just a mentality thing. And I bring that from I think even a young age, I come from a military family. So that kind of makes sense probably why I kind of hone more into that military style of training, which is funny because I don't coach like that necessarily. Right. I will demand a lot from my from my athletes. I will push them beyond what they feel is comfortable within means ⁓ and just kind of elevate the standard. I think a lot of times athletes, young athletes, they are okay with not being mediocre, but they're okay with all the nonsense that can come with practices and being with your friends and being okay with missing reps and being okay and laughing off things. And it's like at some point when we start to get competitive at the varsity level, like there has to be that change mentality. When you're younger, totally we're about getting the game, growing the game, having fun. you know, developing a love for the sport. But then as you get older, like that love needs to turn more into like, okay, how am I getting better than the goal across for me? How am I going to impact my teammates? How am I going to impact the game, both on and off the court. So I'm really big on the process on getting us to a point more than necessarily the game. And the girls can probably tell you that too. Like I, I hate losing. And it's not that I hate losing against a competitive team. I hate losing when I know we were not our best. And You know, being a younger team, we have a coup a couple of seniors, but but but we are heavy on the younger side. And some of the f growing pains this year has been a lot of that. Just a lot of just, you know, developing that killer mentality of developing what I call a dog mentality. Cause we need to be dogs on the court. Like and if, you know, we need to be dogs to steal sets that that we shouldn't steal and that we shouldn't win and to really put the foot on the gas when we're supposed to and close out sets quickly. Yeah.
speaker-0: No, I love all of that and your approach. And I've admired just kind of s you know, watching practices here and there, even when people, you know, normally can't see me, just kind of even peeking through in through the window and just watching how you and your coaching staff go about teaching the game and even your coaching style on the sideline. So, you know, we talk a lot about culture here at ALA Gilbert North. And it's not something that we it's not something that we just kind of talk through. We We actually, when we get into it, we have tangible things that we do that look a little bit different from sport to sport. So when you stepped into the gym on day one, what was one of your core coaching philosoph philosophies, I guess you could say, or philosophy, that you really talked to the girls first and foremost about? And then a part of that, how do you go about building that that culture with the girls program?
speaker-1: Yeah, you know, for me it starts just by getting to know them. I'm I'm really big at at connecting with athletes, talking to them about their day, their music, you know, what they have going on outside of a school, how they're doing in school. You know, little things like that to me makes that bridge and connects. That's to me is my kind of superpower in a way. I feel like I can connect with any athletes with given time. And to me, I really just let them and I I encourage them on the individualism side of things. I think a lot of times young athletes wanna all conform to the same ideology of how they look, how they dress, how they act, how they go th how they go about their day. And, you know, more and more, especially in athletics, we are seeing more of a understanding of letting athletes be athletes within their own right and, you know, not trying to conform them robotically or technically to t to the person next to them. Yes. You know A lot of times when I was growing up, especially in the club that I was in, like everyone needed to look the same, walk the same, dress the same, you know, move the same on the court. And there's a time and a place for that. And I understand that piece of it. But, you know, like I mentioned earlier, it's something where today's athletes are not the same athletes from yesterday. Like it is it is a whole new world. Like I have a couple of girls now that are all over six feet, and that is not something that was very common years ago, especially in the high school gym. And so it's like, look, you might do something a little bit different, but that's okay. And we're gonna we're gonna use that. We're gonna hone it as long as you're not doing anything anatomically wrong to your body and you're harming your body. Why who am I to change that if you are high-level elite? Sure there's there's small tweaks, sure there's things to help you be more consistent. ⁓ but that's really what I hone into. And so as I get to know the girls, as I get to know them throughout the season, it's a lot of just doing that when I come into practices. I don't talk about volleyball for the first 30 minutes. It's all about talking to the girls about other things, getting to know them, and then from there, I establish by doing. So I write all my practices on the whiteboard. We go through everything in detail right before practice starts. We do what's called vitamins every single day because you need your vitamins in life. And I call them vitamins in volleyball. And you know, we need those reps every day. We do them now. We the USA team does them on on the national level. And just really bringing them a lot of what I have experience-wise to the core to show them: hey, I'm not just someone out here talking to talk to talk just to do that. Like I've done this, I've talked to coaches. I've been in their gyms. I've been in Northwestern's gym up in Chicago. I've been in UCF's gym, which is University of Central Florida down in Florida and and Orlando. I've been to Texas State. I've been to a school out in Oregon. So, you know, I have picked the brains of a lot of collegiate coaches and I've been fortunate to work with with a lot of them. You know, one of them being Shane Davis down in Loyola, the Loyola University up in Chicago. He is like a three time, four time national champion. He left to go to Northwestern, went back to the Loyola. I mean, a lot of my coaching style probably stems from them. Some call him stoic on the sidelines. And, you know, I do tend to resemble some of that within reason. I I am a little bit more passionate, maybe, and I might show a little bit more emotion. But especially being in the girls' sport, I encourage them, like, hey, why, why hold back? Get that fiery attitude, show that emotion, show that drive. And then every day it's just showing up. And being the same version of myself. It's making sure that I also learn from my mistakes. I'm very vocal about that with the girls, but it's also challenging them as well. I think a lot of times comfortability can be a downfall of a team and it's just about pushing them to be uncomfortable. And again, I'll go back to the process. I'm really, really big on the nitty-gritty details. And so even for some of my best players, they have seen a change. From the summer Paris, where I was a little bit more laissez faire, a little bit more, hey, like let's just have some fun, get some reps, to like, hey, now now we're on a varsity team and you're my best player. You're leading the state in kills, and I need you to act and do that every single day. You can't take a playoff. You're not, you aren't, you know, you're not able to do that with your presence, with your stature. So just getting them to understand that piece of bit every single day in the practice gym when we go into match play ⁓ and just being consistent with the con with the conversation and the language.
speaker-0: Yeah, love that. Three three things kind of stuck out to me. One was taking the vitamins. I love grabbing ideas from other coaches. And so you have to take your vitamins every day. So what does it look like? You know, if the coach is listening to this podcast, it's okay, what what vitamins can you give out, you know, every day? I love that the fact that you talked about connection. I remember decades ago, and it's kind of showing my age, but when I first started coaching girls. One of the things that I learned was that it was really hard for me as a young coach to get the girls to be focused during practice. Cause they were talking about everything from A to Z. And I was talking to, you know, I went to a seasoned coach, you know, a mentor of mine that said, Hey, I'm just, I'm having a hard time of getting my team to focus during practice. So one of the things that they said is, listen, the girls are going to talk about their day, regardless if you're going to bring it up or not. So why don't you take the first 10 minutes of practice and just talk about their day, what went well, what didn't go well, and then talk about, okay, here's the benefit, whether you had a great day or a bad day, you're gonna have an unbelievable day because now you get to focus for the next hour and a half to two hours on the game of lacrosse, right? When I made that switch and I actually gave them the opportunity to talk through their day and what went well and what didn't. The talking during practice and the focus, talking during practice went down and the focus went extremely much higher. Mm-hmm. Just because I gave them that opportunity to kind of talk through. And when we talked through that day, you know, like in your point of saying being connection, like the girls understood that I really cared about their lives outside of the game of lacrosse, you know, that I was coaching at the time. You know? And
speaker-1: Yep.
speaker-0: And and I love the fact that you talked about honesty of just, hey, being able to admit as coaches, when we make mistakes and to let our team know about it, that's not an easy thing to do.
speaker-1: ⁓ It's not. It's puts you in a very vulnerable state. And, you know, I think a lot of times we we demand a lot from our athletes and we demand perfection. But I think seeing having them see you in a vulnerable state and have that be vice versa gives them that same confidence that, hey, if I mess up on the court, if if I might not take that ball that I should take, I know that Paris and our coaching staff has confidence in me to kind of rebound. And that's something that our girls have learned, they've learned to kind of understand from my coaching style is that you're gonna earn rope. For me through practice and how you show up every day, how you communicate to your teammates, how you show up in school. So then when we get to match play, you have more rope to play with, quote unquote, right? Where if you make a mistake, I'm not gonna yank you out right away. I'm gonna give you a couple more. And I had my girls yesterday in practice, I was like, hey, who here? Raise your hand if I've subbed you out after one mistake. And no one, they all kind of laughed and like kind of looked around and I was like, exactly. Like I understand like this game is. It's a high technique driven game. Every point ends on an error, however you want to look at it. And it's a game up to 25. It's a it's a beautiful game where every game's worth or every point's just worth one. And you know, as long as you can swing together two on every serve, you'll win every match. So yeah. That's a very simplistic way of looking at volleyball. But it's it's a way that I'm trying to get the girls to understand, like, hey, you're you're gonna go through it in the and the athletes, the best athletes probably usually have the highest errors, especially when you look at the collegiate level. The teams and players that are leading the nation in aces are also leading the nation in errors. And so it's like you gotta have this risk reward and you can't be scared of that risk. Otherwise you'll never be the leading person in in your category.
speaker-0: That's great. I mean, you're giving out some great pointers, vitamins, ropes, you know. So I I appreciate that. Okay, so let's look at looking ahead. This is your first year. So every day is a new day for you. And every event is a new event. And so I I realize that you probably have a better picture at the end of this first season, but we're we're not there. What is your vision for the program? So when you are sitting around and you're thinking about the program three years from now. What does ALA Gilbert North and Girls Volleyball look like on the court and in the community three years from now? What do you what do you want us to look like?
speaker-1: Yeah, you know, three years from now, quite honestly, like I would hope we are in the state final at some point in the next three years. You know, I I firmly believe that, even from this season, you know, we're we're losing games that are winnable. And I think that the girls are understanding that and we're we're working through a lot of that pain and a lot of that learning. But on the court it's just about our relentless pursuit, our relentless nature, like I I try to really communicate this and articulate this to our girls this season. But like I mentioned earlier, we have some taller athletes. We have some athletes that have played for, you know, high level clubs and whether they started or didn't start. And it's just about, hey, like, yeah, you did all that, but it's almost like what have you done for me lately? It's a whole thing about, you know, the best coach in football ain't even coaching at the on the same team right now where he won six championships being Bill Belichick for the Patriots. So it's like, yes, you you've done all these things, but that doesn't change what I need you to do now. And so for some of them, it's about building up their confidence and building that kind of killer instinct. I do think we the volleyball community is a nice community. I'm on the girls and boys side, but I think oftentimes we we mistake that niceness for not driving ourselves to compete at a high level. The biggest compliment that you can give any team is competing hard. Whether you win 25-0 or you win 25-23, that's the biggest compliment that that you can give any team. And on our side, it's about demanding nothing nothing but that as far as our effort, our communication. And I've told the girls this time and time again. It's like when when we when we are losing to teams, it is not because we are not more talented than them. We have all the talent in the world, but it is about the grittiness and it's about that dog mentality of, hey, Are you going to do the the the dirty work and practice? Are you gonna lay your body on the line? Are you not gonna worry about being pitch perfect? And I don't know about most sports, but I actually I do know. I think most sports probably deal with something very similar where you give the kids something, you give them an action, they go out there and something very different happens than what you just told them. And then they kind of look at you, kind of like, coach, you told me that this was gonna happen. It's like, yes. But that is just one aspect of this game. The moment that you get something different, that Information has to influence change, has to influence a decision to you to either A, stick to the game plan, or B understand what you've been taught, what we practice, and then execute differently. So it's giving them a lot of that. It's giving them a lot of the IQ part of the game, developing their eyes. And so for me on the court, if we are we are gonna be a high IQ team, our eyes are gonna be great through the net, and we are going to make you. lose your mind defensively because we are going to be so scrappy and so competitive in those like dirty points that we're gonna frustrate teams and we're going to hopefully, you know, put ourselves in a position where we can compete during playoffs and be at the state championship in the next three years. But I firmly believe with with the talent that we have and the mentality that's changing with the program, I think we're gonna get there. And as far as off the court, it's just about being good humans. I'm all about that. And I tell the girls this all the time. We have to be good people. And when you leave this program, like I'm building, I'm trying to build an alumni presence that which isn't here right now for the volleyball program, where we get girls to come back and kind of, you know, play against them, have an alumni game, go out and do something in the community. In my first year here, we haven't had a ton of that opportunity, I will say. But that is a big focus of me going into into future years and even for the rest of the season is how can we impact our community. But I think the biggest way that we could do that without doing any servant leadership is just going out and representing our program by being good students, welcoming that person that's sitting alone at a table, being a family for this season. And that's really my my goal for the program off the court is to positively impact the school, positively impact the community. So when they are going out, you know, and and athletes and employers and coaches are getting players from my program, there's a stark difference between them and the person next to them who's the same age and maybe didn't play for me.
speaker-0: use two words when you were talking through what we would look like in three years and that's relentless pursuit. The definite is the act of following in order to overtake, capture, or kill, right? It's it's not something that you're doing at fifty percent. It's something it's very intentional. And honestly, we can already see that in your first season here. All right, so high school sports, it's a family commitment and having everybody on the same page, it's vital.
speaker-1: Uh-huh.
speaker-0: How do you approach communication with parents? Every coach, every athletic department struggles with this. What is your philosophy on navigating through those conflicts or disagreements? Because they're going to be happening throughout the season when they, when they do pop up, you know, what's what's your philosophy on on navigating those conflicts?
speaker-1: Yeah, it's always gonna be player first. I think, especially when you start to get a y a younger athlete, it's about trying to not sever that that parental guidance, so to speak, but it's just it's just about how can we let these players advocate for themselves more and have those uncomfortable conversations. I talked a little bit about a little bit ago about building, you know, better people outside the community, and that's part of it. It's like you're gonna have d difficult conversations with an employer. You're gonna have a difficult conversation with the syndicate other or your family member, and you have to be the one having that discussion. And so I'm very clear from day one with my parents of hey, this is my c communication chain of command, so to speak. It's always gonna be player first. Cause at the end of the day, you're not in practice every day. Your daughter is. And so your daughter needs to be the one that comes up to me and talks to me about X, Y, or Z. From there, if things aren't resolved, then the coach and that player will bring me in. We'll try to have some more dialogue. And I will say about 99.9% of the time, everything is pretty much taken care of after I step in with that coach. If something might have been misconstrued. A player heard this from their coach. The coach said that they said something different. So I kind of come and immediate that part a little bit and kind of give them, like, hey, no, like your coach is right. Like, you know, you kind of have to understand and kind of listen to what they're telling you. And then from there, then the hopefully the parents will understand. And I will say if they do have to go one step further, the parent does get involved, and then obviously we'll bring you in or the athletic director in at that point if it gets to that case. But the parents here so far have been great. I've only I've had like one small conversation. No, I've had about a couple. A couple conversations where it wasn't so much about parents reaching out and like saying, like, hey, my daughter deserves this. They just want to know information. And I'm super, super transparent. I don't hide anything. And that comes from my club directing days and club volleyball. And you know, as a as a as a volleyball dad, like club sports are ruthless in a way. Like you gotta make your difference between the club down the road from you and what's and what's gonna make that parent choose you. And we made a very early decision as a club, we are going to be the best communicators. out of anyone around us. And that is how we are going to win families over. Like yes, the athletes want to go somewhere, but we knew parents are gonna make the decision at the time 'cause they're the ones paying for it. That's right. And then we win them over by our training and our philosophy once they're in our gym. And so communication for me was instilled during my time as a club director, my mentor Derek Jensen. Shout out to him. Like he really, really molded me into that type of person. And I made mistakes along the way for sure. I wasn't perfect, but he molded me and gave me the grace and the patience to kind of learn on my own and kind of make sure that I understood the reasoning behind it. And now, you know, five, 10 years later, I can I couldn't thank that man enough for that because I lead that into my professional life with Starbucks and then also as a coaching, as a philosophy in that as well.
speaker-0: Stated. It's a partnership with parents, right? And we know that we're gonna have disagreements. We know that we're gonna have these issues throughout the season where I love your analogy of just, hey, it's player first. Let's let's teach them how to advocate for themselves. So one thing that they you should know about me, if you don't already know, is that I I love Ted Lasso and I'm in season four. Have you ever watched Ted Lasso?
speaker-1: I know I watched this first season with during my Apple I had like an Apple Plus trial and so I watched it. Loved the show and then my my subscription ran out and I hadn't
speaker-0: We've all been there. I didn't have it and the new season was coming up and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna I'm gonna do it now. They're very creative though, you know, they don't put all the season on at one time so that you hadn't have to have a longer subscription. But as soon as it's done, I'm telling everybody I'm done with Apple. I've really enjoyed his approach and honestly the leadership lessons that we can learn. There's a famous scene where a player makes a mistake and Ted kind of pulls him inside and and and and says this, you know what the happiest animal on earth is, it's a goldfish. And you want to know why? It's got a 10 second memory. So he's like, hey, the challenge is just be a goldfish. So volleyball, it's fast-paced game of momentum and mistakes going back and forth. How do you teach your players to have that goldfish mentality and immediately move on to the next point? Do you have a do you have a code word? Do you have a signal? What do you do?
speaker-1: It's just intent. I'm really big on it on intention. So when you are going to do something, whether it's you're taking a step out of your base to go cover line or to cover cross, or you're blocking line versus cross or hitting vice versa, it's something where intent is a big thing. Like you have to have a reasoning to why you're doing something, especially at the highest level. Something needs to influence your decision. It can't just be. I like coach told me to be here. So I'm gonna stay in here, but the ball went there and I didn't move. And needs to be the opposite of, hey, I know coach told me to stay in base, but I saw that the setter was up front row. So I'm gonna actually cave in a little bit and then I'm gonna get this tip if I need to. And then I'm gonna have to work my butt off to actually get to where I need to if the ball is set elsewhere. And that is something that is being slowly ingrained into our team. It's something that we are we saw a little bit last night as we won against Post and Butte, something that We we've been wavering with over the last weekend with our tournaments about like, yes, guys, like we are gonna give you answers to the test, quote unquote, or so to speak. And you have to take that. And it's all gonna be influence and information in your Rolodex. And like if your Rolodex is full, you can go in there and you can pick out when you've seen that before and influence that decision to put you in a better position. Volleyball is a game of errors. So you're gonna make an error, right? But was your intent correct? Were you diving with the intent of getting the ball up, or were you diving just because I told you to dive? And to me, that's the starting difference between a great player and a very mediocre player is like again, talent can put you in the right spot, but grit determination, intent is gonna actually convert that into a good dig, a good swing, a good set. And so that's something that we are really, really trying to hammer home with the girls every practice, every game, every time out. And the girls can tell you again, like, I will never lose my cool if the intent is always there. I start to kind of get a little frustrated when balls drop, no one goes for it. The ball is set 50 feet inside, and our hitter just goes and blasts the ball in the net. It's like, yes, I know. Was that a hard attack? A hundred percent. But I know we've trained you to do something specific and you were mentally not you're kind of mentally weak in that instance and you forgot about that. And so your intention wasn't there. And so just having them understand that part of the game is going to elevate us substantially when it comes to when we play other teams. Cause even last night, I would say we got outworked for a majority of that match, but we were more talented until that fifth set where we put talent with hard work and then we the team couldn't even come close to us. We we won 15-9 in the fifth. And so it's just like that's the that's a love-hate relationship. With coaching, especially when you have a team that you're trying to ingrain a different culture that has been here in the past. And I'm learning it in real time. And so I'm learning how to be patient and but I'm also learning when to turn the fire on when I need to. And it's it's funny because I, you know, the girls think I talked about another instance with my boys' team years ago where I kind of lost it on them because they deserved it. And they were like, Well, coach, have you lost it on us? Yeah, I'm like, I was like, guys, you've seen me be like assertive. You have not seen me lose my cool with you quite yet. And I hope you never do. Because it's not a fun sight. I don't love doing it, but I will do it when necessary. I mean, even with our best players, I had to sub out, you know, one of my top middles in the state last night because I wanted to make a point. She was doing what I felt wasn't her best. I felt like her movements weren't the best. And so I made a point. And I was like, look, at some point as a coaching staff, we have to not once we've given them enough of the information and enough of the tools to get the things done, the the c the coddleness and the training wheels have to come off at some point. ⁓ the point has to be made. And so To her credit, and I gave her that tip after the game, I was like, hey, you came out for a couple of points, but when I put you back in, you are a completely different player. And that's the version of you that I need. And that's why you got out, is because that version wasn't the version that I was getting. And so that is the only reason why you came out. And that's ever the only reason why I subbed my athletes out, is just to give them that mental break. Cause again, I know what they can get to, even if they can't see it yet. ⁓ it's just about really getting them to understand that part of the game is the process of how we get things done.
speaker-0: You know, about a minute or two ago you used the word Rolodex. Do the girls have you ever used that term with the girls and do the girls actually know what a Rolodex is?
speaker-1: You know, it's funny you say that 'cause as I said it, I don't know what All right. I think I might use the the phrase cataloging now. Catalog it.
speaker-0: Yeah, cataloging. There you Love it. So before we go, we always like to look at the bigger picture of life. And we are in the business of building just great people, as you said earlier before, not just great athletes. So if you could give our listeners, student athletes, parents, coaches who are tuning in, give us two or three tips on just how to become a better human being every single day. What would that look like to you?
speaker-1: Yeah, being a better human being is just treating others with kindness and patience, you know, assuming best intent. ⁓ a lot of times, especially like there's a guy that I follow, I forget his name, there's a podcast that I listen to where he mentions a story about when if you're driving on the highway and someone cuts you off, our first instinct is to kinda put up the middle finger, swear up and down, you know, curse them, whatever. But what if that person's driving to the emergency room? What if they're driving because their wife is pregnant or someone passed away? Like you don't know what that person's going through. So Leading with that, leading with that has been something that I've taken really hold to me. Treating us with with kindness, how I mentioned before. ⁓ same kind of baseline, right? It's like everyone has their own problems and things that they're going through. And the best thing that I can do in the moment that I'm with you is just, you know, be positive. Like I'm gonna treat you like any other human. I don't care if you're someone that is homeless, if you're someone that has a mom and a dad, parents that are divorced, like you're gonna get the same version of me that you're gonna get no matter what. And to really have the Kids understand the human side of life. And sometimes we forget about that. And so just to just to be a good human, whether that's picking up a trash, whether that's holding the door open for someone that's coming in behind you, all those chivalry things that we don't see all the time anymore. But to some of my girls' credits, they they were talking about their boyfriends and how they all open the door for them and they do, I was like, that's fantastic. And I'm just like, that is what I'm loved to hear. And so just it's just little things like that. ⁓ then lastly, I would say is It's kind of a phrase from Steph Curry is like confidence isn't something you feel. It's something you earn with relentless will and p in practice. And you know, whether that's in life, in your professional world, in school, and in in athletics, like you earn your confidence because you know you put in the work to be that successful and to come out and be on that main stage. And so that is another one that I think is so so true that you you have to have relentless will. You have to wanna be the best. You I'm gonna use some Starbucks phrases here because I work for them, but if you're just a barista, why not be the best barista possible? If you are a shift supervisor, be the best shift supervisor possible. And no matter your level, and that's from from a very young age, military family again, and still from my grandparents, like you need to be the best version. I don't care what you do in life, but be the best at it. And like, so whatever that is for the girls, whether that's being a streamer in the future. A YouTube streamer, whether that's being a doctor, whether that's being a garbage woman, whatever that might be, you know, be the best person for that job and you will always get noticed and you will always be where you're supposed to be if you lead like that.
speaker-0: That's great insight and great reminders. Thank you for sharing that. I can tell you the more and more that I get to know you, the more and more I get to see you coach, your your coaching philosophy of the staff and how, you know, the the seen and unseen things that you do. You know, we we as a school, we're thrilled to have you leading the charge in our girls volleyball program. And I'm really excited about the future. And I I just want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today.
speaker-1: No, thank you, Matt. It's been it's been a pleasure. It's it's always nice to talk just to have that that coach side talk or that chalk talk. And you know, I do think from my early time with the interview process, I remember telling my wife after the interview, I was like, Man, I've interviewed at three places today, all on the same day. But, you know, if if ALA calls me back tomorrow, I'm taking ALA right away. So I've been really impressed with the school, your staff, the girls, the family, the community. I mean I'm excited for years to come of of what we can do here.
speaker-0: So to our listeners and parents, athletes, coaches tuning in, be sure to check out our Instagram account for upcoming volleyball matches and come out and support our girls' volleyball teams. Over the next few weeks, you can see them play at home on what is it, ⁓ October the twelfth, October the 14th, and the 20th. Those are just the next few home matches that we have. ⁓ but thank you for tuning in to the flight plan. And I'm Matt Coleman, and we'll see you next time. Yeah.
