Ep. 1: Decoding Volleyball Tryouts with Coach Ashley Gaines

Ebonie Moore: Thanks for listening to the Panther Pause. If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. Welcome to the Panther Pause, where we go behind the scenes and talk about what really matters. I'm Ebony Moore, founder of Panther Volleyball Training. Today we're talking with Coach Ashley Gaines about what coaches actually look for during volleyball tryouts and how players can put themselves in the best position to stand out. We're breaking down the skill, effort, and leadership traits that can make all the difference. If you're preparing for tryouts, this episode is for you.
Panther Volleyball: so we'll just do like a little intro so everyone who you are, your involvement in the community. Go for it.
Ashley Gaines: Yeah, so I'm Ashley Gaines. head, I actually coach JV and varsity here at Harnett Central at the high school. I teach math at the high school. I've been here, this is year number seven for me, so I'm coming up on year eight. I started fresh out of college with my mom as an assistant at Triton and she has a powerhouse of a program that she built over there. So it was kind of just. what I wanted to do, what I grew up seeing and I love the game of volleyball. I have found a home here in this community and at this school and have really felt like I've built something pretty special here. So excited to see what the future holds.
Panther Volleyball: All right, we're just gonna go ahead and get to it and we're gonna talk about, the basic things that people are expecting or the things that they need to perform well at during ⁓ tryouts, what a coach looking at, and basically the the different lens that a coach has versus what a parent might be looking at during during tryouts or prepping their child for tryouts. so let's just kind of start with, when you are putting tryouts together. What are the basics that you're looking for at your J V and varsity level?
Ashley Gaines: So, I that's two different questions. the JV level, really looking to see, do you understand the basics of every skill that we have? Because you got to build into your varsity program and that's kind of how I like to feed my JV program and how I like to build it up. Can we all pass the ball? Can we at least all use our hands to some extent? Praise the Lord, the double has gone away so you don't really get called so much unless you're doing it over the net
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Gaines: But as a setter, don't like that that rule's gone away, but that's another day kind of topic. Can we serve? If you serve, that's really hard to put you in the game. And then how aggressive are you going to be at the net? I tell my girls throughout summer workouts and tryouts, if you can't pass, you just can't play. ⁓ That's the of everything that you do in volleyball is being able to pass. So if you can serve, that's great. If you have a killer serve, great. But what happens when that team can get the ball back over the net? If you can't pass the ball back to somebody, we're going to be in some trouble. And then next I look for is, are you aggressive? Are you going go after every single ball? Are you going to pursue? Are you going to have good ball control when you do it? Or are you just going to kind of throw arms out everywhere and just pray the ball goes somewhere where you want it to go? And then obviously at the varsity level, you're kind of looking at the gap. What girl can make a perfect pass off of every ball? What girl can make a perfect set? what girl can put away every single ball? ⁓ What is dangerous at the net? who's the go-to people? So ⁓ those girls kind set apart themselves and they are kind of your varsity levels. The one who have more fine-tuned skills and just better ball control and can kind of keep a volley going. ⁓ In JV, you a lot of pass set hits. If you make a decent hit, most of the time it's not going to come back over the net. So kind of building that up to where you can have more influence following across the net from team to team. So I think it's not necessarily, oh, she's got to kill or serve. So she has to be on the team. Like, no, like, can she do all the skills? She's got to be, she's got to be better than just a server. So looking to see how, I guess. versatile they are in their skills. And just, I'm really big on ball control. Cause if you have good ball control, you can outlast a lot of teams who are going to make more mistakes than you. So those are some of the top things that I look for.
Panther Volleyball: Okay. just beyond repetitions, what are some ways that some kids can ensure that they have those tactile s tactile skills down at least enough to make a high school team?
Ashley Gaines: think a lot of it is repetition, like doing it on your own, but maybe not just doing it like against the wall or, to yourself, but finding somebody that you can play with like, hey, let's ⁓ go get a net and do it the net. Let's pass it, hit to ourselves. And can we ⁓ do this A lot of kids you see are playing travel ball that you can play year round and you're gaining knowledge of the game. You're learning different things from different coaches. ⁓ you're exposed to a lot different types of play than you are maybe at your middle school level. I think we see here a lot of times the middle school is just kind of all on the same level and maybe you have one that stands out. So I think getting involved in a rec league, just in a travel ball team, finding some way that you can do more than just like you said, self repetitions, like where can I go and play six on six? Where can I go play three on three? ⁓ Volleyball is so much more than just pass set hit. It's very strategic. So if you can play grass, if you can play sand, like those are so big. You see so many big colleges, like they now have beach leagues that their indoor players are playing because it makes them so much better for indoor. So if you can find ways to go to a sand court and play, go to play in the grass, get 12 friends together and go play six on six, any way that you're seeing the volleyball. more than just giving yourself a perfect toss to make a perfect pass, to make the perfect set. know, putting those real kind of game-like experiences together helps you tremendously.
Panther Volleyball: we're already we've already moved past just, basic skill, what I find ⁓ is what makes ⁓ really good player like their emotional readiness. ⁓
Ashley Gaines: Mm-hmm.
Panther Volleyball: What is it that you see in tryouts or just in a in a player and an athlete in general that makes your coach brain say, ⁓ this kid is ready? She the passes might not be perfect, but your coach brain is like, I I I see something in that one. So what are some of the signs some the small ⁓ that students might be showing you ⁓ that alerts you that they some emotional readiness?
Ashley Gaines: One is that they don't get frustrated with themselves. If see a girl who can come in the gym and work hard and maybe she doesn't make the perfect pass, maybe she doesn't make the perfect set, maybe she hits a ball as hard as she can and it goes outside the court. If she can get back to the next play and I don't see it here and she gets back to the next one, that's huge. And I think that's across middle school, high school on up. If you see a girl who can come in the and work hard and maybe she doesn't make the perfect pass, maybe she doesn't make the perfect set, maybe she hits a ball as hard as she can and it goes outside the court. If she can get back to the next play and I don't see it here and she gets back to the next one, that's huge. If you see somebody who can just flip the switch and say, I know I can do this, let me get the next ball. That's really big because girls have big emotions and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with you having big emotions, but don't forget we have a next play. Like that one thing doesn't cost us the game. So if I can see a girl who can go and just reset her mind real quick and, ⁓ I make a great pass. Well, let me get this one and help my team out better. A girl just going to be tough. ⁓ so if I ask her to make a correction, she going to look at me like I'm crazy or is she going to be like, okay, like, let me see if I can try it this way. ⁓ it should kind of roll our eyes at me because then we might have a little bit of an issue type of thing. But just one who's just willing to the instruction, kind of soak it up like a sponge. And you see that very much so with your eighth graders coming into high school, like
Panther Volleyball: But just
Ashley Gaines: They're here in volleyball in a very different way and so they very much so absorb it. But I think those are some key features. Like if I can see a girl who's in the gym and she's trying hard and she's not getting frustrated with herself and just shutting down, ⁓ don't think girls realize that like ⁓ anger emotion shuts you down so much faster than any other emotion out there. And so ⁓ when angry at yourself, you're kind of already defeating yourself. You're not telling yourself positive things. And so if we can get you out of that mindset of, I can get the next one, then we're good. And summer workouts in my tryouts, in my practices, if my girls are making bad passes, especially in service, I started this thing. My coach did it to me when I was in high school and you pointed the server and tell her, serve it to me again, I can pass. And so if you're saying that out loud, I need you to start believing that. And then once you believe that and you're saying it out loud and you tell somebody, dare her to serve it to me because I know I can pass. You see the flip, you see the switch flip in their minds. so seeing them now take the anger and the frustration and turn it into something positive. I mean, that shows you right there. There's not much that they can't do. So that's something that I look big for immaturity for girls.
Panther Volleyball: not to give anybody any ⁓ insider information as to exactly what you're doing in your tryouts and what drills and what but what are some I to say some some basic things that kids could can expect to be going through ⁓ during a tryout what am I to ⁓ Like what are yeah.
Ashley Gaines: I can give you some ⁓ don't.
Panther Volleyball: So she's I can give you the drills.
Ashley Gaines: ⁓ There is nothing fancy I'm doing over here. That's for sure I mean, I would say like day one, I do tell my girls, expect to run, but then expect some type of drill after that because let me see what you can do when you're tired. What kind of stamina do you have? Because volleyball is a long game. People think like you just kind of stand there a lot, but you really don't when you get to a certain level and... Some volleys go very long. think there were some this past year in Division 1 that were like a minute and a half and those girls were dog tired. And so expect to run and expect as soon as we do that, we're gonna go serve. How many serves can you get now out of 10 while you're tired? After that, quick water break, we're gonna run again. Let's go to a butterfly drill. How much can we control our body while we're tired? And I just always tell them like, what's your goal for this year? If your goal is to be top of the conference, you gotta outwork everybody right now. know, everybody's not gonna be working as hard as you are day one. So if we're working hard right now, everybody else has to do the same thing, So a lot of ball control and a lot of running is my first day. Just what can I go ahead and weed out kind of thing? Because the girls who don't like to run, they're not coming back day two. They take care of themselves. And I know that be kind of ugly to say, but the girls who don't like to run, They're not coming back day two. Day two, that's when I start putting some things together. Like I've seen you for most of the summer or you've told me this is a position you like. Let's see what this looks like mixing up some people, some six on six. maybe putting a whole freshman group out there with a whole senior group. Let's see how you guys, how hard are you freshmen gonna fight? And then seniors, what are you gonna do kind of thing? and then just start mixing them up from there. ⁓ And then day three kind of where I have my great divide. Like, let me throw out some options for some six on six and who's going to be those varsity girls, who's going to be those JV girls. But I mean, expect lot of drills, expect some game-like situations. At least for me as a coach, I need to see how you're going to react. Are you going to, if I put the pressure on you in tryouts and ask you to do X, Y, Z, are you going to be able to handle that? ⁓ Because think that says a lot about you as far as... ⁓ what you're gonna be doing later on in the season.
Panther Volleyball: That makes absolute sense. I took notes. I hate running. I try to be nice until I can't anymore and I'm like, you know what? You're not listening. let's go. I I tried, y'all. Now you gotta run.
Ashley Gaines: Yeah. And I... When I get in season, I don't do as much running and my girls would beg to differ on that. But a lot of my drills incorporate exercise into them. So while we're doing something, like if you miss a serve, you got burpees or push-ups to do. If you miss a bad pass, whatever the case may be, we try to incorporate that so we're not spending so much time just running and we can really get to the game part of it.
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ashley Gaines: But all summer we're building up our stamina and tryouts. Like I got to see how hard you're willing to work because what if this is what practices look like kind of thing. So.
Panther Volleyball: right. ⁓ So next I wanna talk about some more of the cerebral part of the game, about how you can really tell that a player is competitive and really in the game and really in there for their teammates. Can we kinda go over what you're looking for as far as like competitive energy and how they communicate with their team?
Ashley Gaines: Yeah, so a big part of that would just be how are you pursuing balls on the floor? So ⁓ girls aren't allowed to ask was that my ball? My idea, especially for my liberos, is if you have that jersey, you should want to get every single ball because your idea is that you're the best passer on the team. My biggest rule is no ball hits our floor unless it's outside the white lines. So ⁓ Collectively, you six got to figure it out. So if I know I have girls after balls, running, they're gonna talk because they see somebody coming, they're gonna start calling it a little bit more. So that kind of helps your communication aspect of it. but it's really all about relentless pursuit. Like, do you want to get a point more than you want the other team to get a point? And how hard are you willing to go for it? I mean, I have had girls in scrimmages, in practices, I have to tell them to like, hey, you can bring it down a notch, especially in practice. Like, we're running full throttle to the back of the gym, like running through the mats back there. I'm like, okay, like, slow down just a little bit. Like, I don't need you to like get hurt or anything. But that's what I like. I like to see my girls here going wall to wall, bleacher to bleacher. Whatever it takes is kind of the mentality that ⁓ you want them to have. Whatever it takes to keep that ball up off of up off the floor. If you have girls who are willing to do that, I mean, dive on the floor. Kick a ball up off their feet. mean, pancake a ball just. Going anywhere on the floor to keep a ball up. I think that kind of tells you how competitive they are. I have a lot of hitters as they get older, kind of see how good they are. And it doesn't really happen until like the junior, senior year. But especially this year, I was lucky enough to have a girl who was player of the year for our conference. And she got player of the year of a girl who's going to Liberty to play volleyball. And I think a lot of that comes from her competitiveness. When she's on the front row, if she... ⁓ was not doing what she needed to do. She would just take a quick little break, catch her breath, and then she would look at her center and say, give me the ball, I'm getting this point. If we were in a very tough situation, give me the ball, I want us to get this point. It was never out of a selfish doing, but she knew that she could do that for her team to help get the momentum back to us, and everybody else was going to pick up behind her after she did that. So I think when you see girls who their will start turning, they see how good they are, not in a selfish way, but in a I can elevate our team a little bit. Like, let me do it. Having girls who are like, yeah, like I'll go in there and I'll do the pass in. I'll pass in service, Eve. Like, let me do the dirty work. I think that's huge competitiveness. I had to quit playing a lot of fun games in practice, because my girls got a little too competitive, but they just... Yeah, I'll be careful what great games I play. I joke with them all the time. I'm like...
Panther Volleyball: That's great.
Ashley Gaines: We can't have any fun lighthearted games because you guys start yelling at each other because you think everybody's cheating. But I think that just shows like they refuse to lose. So like if we're playing something and I do a lot of like realistic games in practice, so it's 20 to 20, you need five points to win. And so just kind of challenging them with different things. So I'm like, if you get a side out on the first ball, there you go, two points. I was like defense, if they get a point on you guys out of service, Eve, you lose a point. So it kind of makes them have to work really hard and push tough. Um, but they refuse to lose. If one team loses, they're like, uh, we're playing that again. Best two out of three kind of thing. I'm like, we have other things in practice we have to get through, yeah, they're like, they're like, play three out of five for school. Like we'll be good. Like two out of three, let's go kind of thing. So, um, they don't like to be the loser. So the other team always picks on them when you, when you lose. they're like, ha ha, we beat you kind of thing. Um,
Panther Volleyball: Nope, don't care. We're doing this again.
Ashley Gaines: So I think that shows a lot of competitiveness when you're able to play real situation games and the girls are going as hard as they can at each other. And so I always push that in the gym of if you're not, if you're my best player and you're not working hard, how do you expect our worst player to get any better? And so I've seen over the past few years, our girls just take an ownership of that of. If I'm the best player, if I'm the best passer, the best setter, the best hitter, if I'm the best, I have to work just as hard so the next person gets better with me. And so they really have owned in on that. And it's something that is across the board at the varsity and at the JV level. They all want somebody to hit it harder to them, somebody to set them a little bit better and have a bigger block in front of them. So ⁓ think that's really big of how you can tell if somebody is competitive. Like, are they relentless? Are they going to do whatever it takes to win?
Panther Volleyball: That all sounds fantastic. I can't wait till I'm there with my players. cannot wait. It's just I'm excited to see the high school level. they're transitioning from rec to, hey, I really love this, ⁓ to, my God, why are you yelling at me? You're making this too hard. don't like it anymore. You're hurting my feelings. Like we're we're we're in that area with the middle schoolers and like this is starting to get serious. But I cannot wait to sit there and watch like serious, serious high school where hopefully they gel very well. They understand that they're a team. with getting back to is there anything that you see in tryouts where you're just like, ⁓ this one will gel very well with the with ⁓ with who already kind of got, kind of tucked away for, I need a new setter she looks like she would really gel. Is there anything that kids do that stands out like that in tryouts that just makes you make a mental note?
Ashley Gaines: I know this is gonna sound weird because we always talk about like the competitive ones are the leaders on your team and leaders should be outspoken. But I will say it for my setter who's going into her senior year this year. She have been on varsity from the jump. ⁓ I her after four or five games on JV. needed her on varsity. But she is quiet as a mouse. But she gels with everybody. And it's just her presence that she has on the court So I think one is the presence that they bring to the court if they're on the court and they're calm Everybody else everybody goes to that if you're a calm person whether you're a passer a setter or a hitter if you're calm and you don't get too excited when you do something really bad if You stay calm and collected you're gonna jail with people because they can they can feel good to that they can go to that and say okay like She's not on pins and needles. We don't have to be on pins and needles. I think you can see it with their skill. You can have somebody who is an outstanding hitter and they can hit one of 10 balls inbounds. They're not going to mesh well with anybody else because they're going to be upset that they're not getting every set. But when you get set 10 times, you only put one ball away. Like, why would I keep setting you kind of thing? So I think a lot of it has to just do with their personality. A lot of my girls is how competitive they are. If you're competitive, you're going to gel well with my older girls because they are cutthroat. ⁓ It's a cat and dog fight every day kind of thing for their spot and they know it. it's a great energy to have in the gym. And my girls love each other. Like it is ⁓ how competitive they are. But at the end of the day, like they're each other's best friends. ⁓ Yeah, and so it's awesome to see like. If one of them is having a bad day, she's like, I know I can have a bad day. It's not OK that I'm having a bad day, but I know.
Panther Volleyball: It's like a sibling thing, like yeah.
Ashley Gaines: Sister over here has got it. Like if something happens kind of thing. So I think you just really can tell by the personalities. If you got a big personality and you're going to make it all about you, you're not going to gel with anybody at any level because you want to be the star. And if you want to be a part of a team, just, you can't that kind of mentality. You have to be a role player and your role be that you're the star, ⁓ but you can't the one who is like all about yourself. You still have to be all about the team first. And so when you see somebody who's willing to put the team first before themselves, I think that just kind of shows through the personality and the way that they play. That would be my biggest thing. Like just their personality and how they carry themselves on the court is one of the biggest ways that you can see.
Panther Volleyball: I mean that flows like directly into my next little area here. It's just like the the small indicators that you'll still see at a tryout. It was not necessarily the player that ⁓ first to get in line for a drill. Like, or maybe it's the player that decided they wanted to take another player on that might not have been their best friend, but hey, they're talking to them on the sideline. It's okay. Like, what kind of things do you see from maybe those new kids ⁓ that give an indicator that they are a hundred percent team players.
Ashley Gaines: I will say a lot of my girls come into my program very intimidated and scared. I think they come from a world that's so different than what high school is. The plays faster, the hits are harder kind of thing. And a lot of these girls that are on the varsity team who are juniors and seniors, ⁓ they're club year round. ⁓ They're little bit different than the middle schoolers. So they come in very intimidated and you can see it from the summer until tryouts.
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Gaines: They slowly become a little more excited when they get a kill. They slowly cheer a little bit louder. They want to be partnered with the older girls because they want to get better. They see, how good they are and they're like, ⁓ let me partner with her because she's the best on their varsity team. I want to be with her because I want to be like that someday. ⁓ So I think see over time, the more they all are with each other, like you were saying, I mean, just they become more confident in themselves. And you see, like we talked about earlier, their reaction is a lot different as far as, okay, I didn't make a good pass, let me make this next one a good pass. You see that happening a lot more because they're with girls who are going to them. The older girls are like, hey, you got it, like you're good, like next ball we're good kind of thing. So the more that they're kind of just gelling with that and seeing what the other players can do, you see their growth through that. And it's again, a mental maturity thing that happens. ⁓ and seeing like, it's okay that I'm making a mistake, but here's how we can correct it and here's how we can go forward.
Panther Volleyball: I really wanna small cues like early off ball movement, anticipating a tip before it happens. Like, I really wanna know ⁓ Are they doing that coming out of middle school? I don't know how to phrase the question leading into it. ⁓ but yeah, that's what I really wanted. Of course not. Okay, then there we go. Don't have to ask.
Ashley Gaines: No, and I think a lot of that just comes with volleyball IQ. And ⁓ said this for years. This is a conversation my brother and I have had before. Middle need just as good coaches in them as we do our high schools. ⁓ And will say that until I'm blue in the face. Your high school program can only be as good as your middle school program. And how much are you willing to feed into it? ⁓ Yeah, I mean, I'll even say over the past years, I haven't been as great as I have been before. But our school coach, her and I have a great relationship. She comes to my summer workouts and gets drills. She sends girls to our middle school camp that we have. So they kind of learn early on kind of what I expect, but they don't have the same volleyball IQ because don't need that volleyball IQ at the middle school necessarily, ⁓ especially around here. yet. It's very much so developing. But... It's the small things that they have to learn once they get to JV. And that's what I love the summer for because I can spend a lot more time in the summer teaching you, hey, like this is your defense when the outside is hitting and here's some cues. Like ⁓ is her hand doing that we can say, okay, I got to crash hard to get the tip or I got to crash hard to get the roll or...
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're not in Nebraska, so
Ashley Gaines: She's about to cut an angle. She's about to go line. Like what are those small cues from the shoulders, from the hand, from the approach? Like what can I see? And that's just not really taught at the middle school because you're trying to get the basics of pass, hit, hit. what do we do on a free ball? What do we do on this and that and another? And so teaching that is sometimes difficult, but I also find so much joy in it because sometimes we forget the foundational and the fundamental part of volleyball. And I rush through the fundamentals with my varsity sometimes and you have to realize real quick They can't get any better if they don't have those fundamentals down. So I really enjoy it Sometimes I get frustrated because I'm like, why don't you know this but then I have to remember Where where you're coming from and so? Seeing that is a little bit different. I have learned over the years Don't ever not teach them a drill or don't ever not teach them how to do something because I would always say, I just don't think like their level of play is there yet. Like they're just, their skills aren't there. I mean, my mom said it this year to us, to me during club and she was like, challenge them. Like they have good skills, challenge them, tell them they have to do the drill. They have to do it. They got to learn how to do it. Like if you want them to be able to do it next year, they've got to be able to do it right now. And so figure out how you can do the drill. What can you change to build into what you want it to look like? And ⁓ Just like in the classroom, teachers have expectations for students. You should have expectations for your athletes to be able to reach those. And I tell my girls all the time, drills were not designed to beat you. They were designed for you to beat the drill. So drills don't beat us. So we always beat a drill. And I think when you kind of give it that approach of, okay, I know you weren't taught this, but let's see how we can fix it. And what can we do to kind of make it a little more fun, like where it'll stick? You see them absorb it like a sponge. ⁓ They learn and it might take them a while. It might take them a game or two to like really for it to fully click. But when it does, it's like, okay, we are doing this right. But it is hard when, some middle schools that I've seen play like in the Wake County area are so much better ⁓ than of what we have in our area just because of the time that they're exposed to volleyball. So that's a little bit.
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm. Resources and yeah. They have a lot of gym space over there. A lot of gym space. I think there's one middle school that will not be named, but if they're listening, they know exactly which one I'm talking about because I coach I joke with their coach all the time. And like, you have a multiplex and I'm dealing with one court. I need you to chill and understand we're working with different resources here. Okay. ⁓
Ashley Gaines: Yes. ⁓ Yeah, it's very different. It's whole new world when you go outside of, know, I mean, for me, for Harnett County, even when I went to college and played and a whole different world out there of what everybody's exposed to.
Panther Volleyball: Yeah. We're gonna kind of bounce around back to what we were talking about. I have a pretty good ⁓ question here. How do you this is specifically tryouts, how do you kind of stress test a player's emotional maturity during a tryout? Is it just kind of are there just natural situations that happen and you just kind of notice like, ⁓ okay, I didn't expect that, or they handle that well, or do you do you purposely place like little in your tryouts to see where okay. Kids usually kinda wig out here. I'm I'm gonna see something different here.
Ashley Gaines: Yeah, day one, a lot of that can be shown with how frustrated you're going to get that we're running again. Are you going to be upset when there's a penalty to you not achieving the goal? So a lot of that gets kind of weeded out there. So everything I do in the gym, there's a goal to it. If we don't meet the goal, there's a consequence to it. And that's just, A, setting you up for a real life. B, teaching ⁓ how we can come to adversity and how we can fight back to it kind of thing. That's mostly day one, day two. I do a lot of, kind of game like situations and maybe you have some players who made it past day one. Excuse me. But they might not have the caliber of play that you need for a JV team. And so let me throw them in with my varsity girls. How are these varsity girls going to handle somebody who really has no business playing with them? Her skill's not there. She doesn't really communicate well. How are you gonna handle that? Are you gonna get mad and yell at her or are you gonna say, the next time that this happens, try being here. How is that, like maybe help her out. So I think if you, you can kind of gauge ⁓ people at. Are they hotheads or not? And day three, I go full competition mode. How are you gonna react when I tell you you were in the net and maybe the other girl was in the net? Like what if I'm the bad ref? Like how are you gonna react? Cause I mean, I was a hot head. If a ref made a bad call, I was going to let him know when I was in high school and college, you know? And even, even now coaching, it's very hard to not get excited sometimes at the refs and get a little animated. ⁓ I've had my fair share of yellow cards. That's for sure. Yeah. ⁓
Panther Volleyball: Really? ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah.
Ashley Gaines: The girls get a little excited sometimes when I start yelling, but sometimes they also are like, it's okay. Like we're okay. We'll get the next point. It's not okay. He's got to make the right call kind of thing. But lot of that can just be shown in how you play. If your team's losing, I've had a, I've had to stop drills before in, in season in practice and be like, that's not how we're talking to our teammates. there's a way to say something and be excited.
Panther Volleyball: Yeah.
Ashley Gaines: but how you say it is different than what you say a lot of times. so girls sometimes don't know the difference in being competitive and being mean. And so you kind of have to teach them that. And you can catch it early on and most of them make the change. But a lot of them, there's just that competitor in them and sometimes it just comes out, but they're the first ones to say they're sorry when it comes out. When they're a true competitor, they're ones of ⁓ one of the first ones to be like, Coach Gaines, I'm sorry, like I just lost it on her. I didn't mean to. But I love, I love throwing in girls who don't have the same skill. I love putting them together. Like, how are you gonna face this? Are you gonna get mad with her? Are you gonna get frustrated or? So a lot of those things can kind of be said with any drill that you do. Like, are you gonna get upset if there's a penalty because you didn't do something right? So you're kind of telling them no without telling them no. So it kind of. Let me see how you react to this kind of thing.
Panther Volleyball: Okay. I want to ⁓ at level, the high school level, this is something that is, I guess ⁓ slowly becoming better skill ⁓ when you're exiting middle school. still required, but it's becoming a better skill when you're exiting middle school. are there indicators that show you that a player ⁓ is kind of taking ownership for themselves in their journey as opposed to being parent led, does that make a difference to you? If it does, how much of a difference does it make in their development?
Ashley Gaines: I think it makes a huge difference from a coaching standpoint. If it's player-led, they're gonna be asking questions in practice. They're gonna ask for things outside of practice. They're gonna come early to practice. They're gonna stay late. They're the ones who are gonna want the extra reps and they're not gonna care about anything else. They're gonna ask you, can I do in the off season? What am I doing wrong? How can I be better? They're gonna kind of name those things. The ones who are very much so parent-led, They're always going to be your ones who are still dragging their feet. They're going to have an excuse for why they did something that way. And so I think that's just, that's just a big difference. I am very big on not having conversations with parents about playing time. So that's one thing when I have a parent meeting, I tell them, I don't talk to you about playing time. I will talk to your daughter. and I are the ones who have the relationship, coach and player. Her and I are also here doing this every day together. I feel like we have that relationship. She should feel like she can come and talk to me about her playing time. If she's not happy with it, we can talk. And then if we need to go past that, like we can, we can of direct that as we go. But a lot of times it's the parent who wants the kid to play more. Maybe they played a lot in the middle school and now they're not because it's different at the high school level, These girls grew over the summer because they came to every single summer workout and you just thought you could come to a couple and be okay. But in those weeks that they came and you didn't, they saw a lot of repetitions and they got a lot better. I think ⁓ just be able to tell by the way they care of themselves at practice. The ones who are player-led and want to get better, they're going to be ⁓ ones who are first in every line. They're going to be the ones who are pushing to be the first in every sprint. They're gonna want another one more ball, one more serve, one more whatever they wanted. Whereas the ones that are very much so parent led, they're a little more standoffish. They'll make an excuse for something. was somebody else's fault, And it's never like, what I do or anything like that? Like it's a, why aren't you playing me kind of question instead. It's not a, what can I do to improve my playing time? I think that's a huge difference is how they're gonna word those. those things typically don't start showing until about halfway through a season as far as like when it's parent led for me that I've seen over the years. But I think that makes a huge difference because if somebody's coming me and saying, hey, what can I do better to help my team out? How can I improve to make us a little bit better? Not only are you taking ownership of yourself because you have goals. ⁓ selfishly, but like you have goals that are team oriented. You want us to be better as a whole and the better we are, the better you are. And so I think that just makes a huge difference of how you can talk to that player and how that player is going to go and execute those things with their team. So.
Panther Volleyball: So you led perfectly into one of the most asked questions. you said growth. obviously, yes, this is a factor, but how big of a factor or how does it factor in when you might not be the tallest and you to play volleyball? Are you are you relegated to lib Or are you maybe Jill Gillen and you can jump 12 feet in the air? How you know when you're watching a tryout, what what do you assess there?
Ashley Gaines: Um, I try to never let size be a factor. Um, in fact, I have a girl who is going into her junior year and she came to us her freshman year and was on varsity. I mean, just the skill level was already there, but she might be five, two, five, three. And she's a DS for sure. But if I went to her and was like, I need you to play middle this game in a heartbeat, what do I need to do in a heartbeat? Like she will do it. she will play with everything in her. ⁓ will go up and think that she's blocking every single ball and she only gets her fingertips over. She wants to be set every single ball. So I try not to let size be a factor in that, but obviously at some point in time it could become a factor. But if you're working hard. And you're a smart player. Sometimes the smart player outweighs the heavy hand. And we've, I've seen it across the board in all my years of playing and coaching. For instance, in 2015, 16, couldn't tell you the exact year. So let me not. I think it was somewhere between 17 and 18. My mom. did not have a player on her team that was taller than 5'10". And we, my brother and I coach, and my sister was playing at the time, and we made it to ⁓ Eastern Regional. So we were one game away from winning to be in the state championship. And beat a team that was undefeated. So they beat Grace Creek who was undefeated, who had a girl, ⁓ Granted, she was going to Virginia Tech to play softball, but she had been player of the year for their conference since she was a freshman. taking girls who were not any taller than 5'10 and beating some of these giants is But it was because they wanted it. And so ⁓ if want it, your size will never be a factor that holds you back.
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Gaines: Now that might mean you might have to change positions or maybe we're going to have to look at how our defense looks a little bit different or how you approach to hit the ball. my sister was a hitter at the time and she is like five, five, five, six, maybe. And she was never a power hitter, but she was going to place that ball everywhere, but the defense was, they were never going to be able to get her ball. She was going to roll. She was going to hit. She was going to tip. She was going to make you have to work for your points. And so I've seen ⁓ that at this level that girls are, okay, I'm not as tall as maybe our 6'1 middle, so I've got to work a little bit harder of how can I work around this block? girls that we're facing that are getting elbows and armpits over the net, how can I work around their block? ⁓ So, that letting, my mom's favorite quote is, and it's something that I always tell my girls, the size of the dog in the fight doesn't matter when the fight of the...
Panther Volleyball: I wish I could. ⁓ my gosh.
Ashley Gaines: How does it go? The size of the dog and the fight doesn't matter, but the fight inside the dog is what matters kind of thing. ⁓ Yeah, I'll have to find the exact quote. Probably messed it up. She's gonna be so mad if she watches this. Whoops, sorry, mom. But that's what, I mean, that was her saying that year. She was like, it's not about the size of the fight and the dog, but the size of the fight in the dog. So if you're willing to fight, you're gonna come out. And so... ⁓
Panther Volleyball: I like it. That works.
Ashley Gaines: That's one big thing, but I also push vertical jumping all summer long. So my girls do some type of jump training three days out of the week while we're in summer workouts. And so I have a middle now who's going into her senior year. She already had a really good vertical, but she will stand up. She's about, sorry, our lights just went out from the timer. have a middle, ⁓ she's six foot. She's going into her senior year. Already had a really good vertical. but now she will take a jump rope. They have to jump over a rope with weights until they like do their approach and then they do their approach. So it's all about repetition and stuff like that. But she will now take a jump rope and stand up and place it at her chest and challenge herself to jump over it. ⁓ yeah, she gets over it more than she doesn't. So she has pushed herself in our jump training that we do. So that's a big one. You can see. ⁓
Panther Volleyball: Nice.
Ashley Gaines: When you do it every day, you can see the difference in their jumping just a little bit. So that's one thing I always push because I'm like, we're not six, five, six, four like some of these other teams that have girls that they just pick up and they're six foot tall. So got to find other ways around that. ⁓ so how much you can fight for something, that's going to take you further than a lot of height will. So.
Panther Volleyball: So again, perfect segue. I wrote down a little note here. so I find that at the middle school level, this is like the pre-adolescent, and everyone's kind of, getting used to their bodies. But I am realizing that when I'm coming across some really tall kids, they tend to play the smallest. Like they just kind of want to shrink.
Ashley Gaines: you
Panther Volleyball: I would have killed. Like I'm really s I'm like be six, be six, six seven. I don't care. Like like be big, be proud of it. Slam the ball on that on top of that girl's head. Like, can you please and they're just so gentle. Like how I how do you find that that's still happening at the JV level? And like is that just something that they grow out of? Is there something there's some kind of button that you can find? Like in the back, is there a reset button back there? You can just be like, nope, reboot, control, alt, delete, fix it. How how do you get them over that?
Ashley Gaines: One, I think it is just... puberty thing but not a puberty thing because some of them have hit puberty in middle school but it's just growing into their body. Like if you watch some of those tall girls ⁓ that that tall in middle school they can't run in a straight line and that's just a fact. And so ⁓ they're awkward and uncoordinated and I think once they get to high school you can kind of fix some of those things. I tell my middles all the time I'm like you're the biggest girl out here you you got a big job to do. You got to touch every ball that comes across that court. And so sometimes that helps in the mentality, but I see it from sophomore to junior year mostly. And has really been what my middle this year ⁓ has her shift from last year when she was a sophomore to this year entering her junior season. She pushed herself on a club team, played with a competitive team, and then she worked like a dog. summer workouts. She refused to not touch every ball that she could. She ⁓ so bigger than what I would have ever thought she was when she came in her freshman year ⁓ because is how she used to block at the net. Yeah so ⁓ there a lot of conversation of hey we gotta have big hands that ball is not stopping just on this ⁓ big So starting and letting them be okay with being big like
Panther Volleyball: ⁓ no.
Ashley Gaines: I want you to be big. Use it to your ability. ⁓ what John Doe down the hallway does not like that you're six foot. I love it. Your team loves that you're six foot. And so when they start buying into that of I can be big and make an impact on this team, they're okay with it. But I think it just, it's that sophomore to junior year when they realize, okay, I know my body now, I know how big I can be. ⁓ So it still takes a while. Like I take a lot of my freshmen and sophomore middles and I just shake them because I'm like, you can do this. But a lot of it, I think it's just, you're just awkward with your body. You got to grow into all of your limbs. They're longer than what you're used to. So growing into those, being coordinated enough to do everything. So I wish there was a reset button that I could press and be like, be big, be great kind of thing, but it doesn't.
Panther Volleyball: Ha ha ha. goodness. It's it's all the the mindset shift and all the stuff that they work on. now's the time that we talk about the the part of tryouts that, no one really wants to talk about. just the general weeding out process 'cause everyone is not going to make it.
Ashley Gaines: Okay.
Panther Volleyball: I know that for me, again, not the same, skill level we're looking at. But for me, it is not necessarily a hundred percent what they can't do, but a lot of it is what they won't do, which is the attitude and the, ⁓ coachability and the things we've talked about already. I wanna ask you about some of those and how you make those dis those decisions.
Ashley Gaines: in the past few years I have cut girls who were on the team as a freshman and then they got to their sophomore year and I cut them. I do want to say I don't think a lot of parents believe this but tryouts are the hardest part for any coach. If you me, I have a with all my girls. I... ⁓ spend a lot of time with them over the summer, three days out of the week, almost four hours. Like spending a lot of time together. And so you develop relationships, obviously, like a community this tight, like, you know, their parents. So it's never easy. I have made myself ⁓ sick my stomach. I have cried about having to cut girls because all all, it's not it's never because they're a bad kid most of the time. I mean, they're great girls and I just hate to do it. I had freshmen who came in and worked harder than them. And you see a freshman who is coming in and working harder than somebody who was already on the team because they think it's just going to be given to them, that's a hard pill for me to swallow ⁓ because see a freshman who wants it bad. And if willing to work that hard now and try out, what will she do for me in 10 weeks ⁓ when we're the end of the season? How hard is she going to keep working for me? Whereas you're coming in and you're, for instance, a girl I cut, she said, I'd rather be at home eating a barbecue sandwich right now, one day when she was checking in. And I was like, Yeah, so that one conversation ⁓ of, was like, okay. And she didn't really work hard throughout tryouts and didn't really stand out when we played six on six. And just when opportunities were given to her,
Panther Volleyball: We can arrange that.
Ashley Gaines: didn't really stand out and just. So stuff like that is a lot of what I see. I'm really big on attitudes. I don't put up with junk. been a part of teams that were miserable where the girls had attitudes and were caddy and had the drama. I've played on them. I've coached them and it's just miserable for everyone. So tell my girls like you might not like each other, but you're going to love each other when we're inside this court like your sisters and your family and. families go to war for each other. So that's kind of how we're treating this. so my girls very much so know that and kind of own in on that. ⁓ I don't really have that many issues, but you can tell the ones who have a little bit of attitude, like not very coachable. So sometimes pulling them to the side and like having just a little one-on-one conversation with them and seeing like where their heads at, like what's going on kind of thing. And a lot of times you see that improve after have a conversation with them. And I mean, if we're being honest, some girls just have RBF. I have it sometimes too. I have to be very careful. I can be at tryouts and the girls think I'm so mad because there's a certain look on my face, but I'm really just concentrating in on somebody. So as a girl, like you kind of have to be careful just because if your mouth doesn't say it, your face does. And so I think that's where a lot of just one-on-one conversations happen throughout tryouts of like, hey, like I'm seeing this like, Can you fix it for me? Like, is there anything we can do? Those are really the only ones I weed out. I've never, I've some girls that just didn't have the skill, like, they couldn't pass a free ball. They couldn't get an overhead serve over. But again, those are ones that pretty much weed themselves out on day one. And they, they know it most of the time. Not always. ⁓ I've had some that come all summer long and still just cannot get an overhead serve over. They can't pass. They still don't know how to run the drills that we did. And it's kind of like, if we've been doing this for eight weeks and you don't know how to do it now, like I don't know that you're gonna be able to pick it up by next week. And once season gets rolling, like we're rolling, we're going three games a week, not much practice. Like we've got to be able to put things together. But I mean, I would agree to like what you said about what they won't do. If I tell my girls, there's three things that I can never control and that's the effort you give, the energy you have and the enthusiasm that you have. So I call those the three E's. If you don't have those three E's, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb in a gym because everybody else is going to be given the effort and somebody's going to have energy, enthusiasm. Don't ever let those be a reason why coach cuts you. because somebody who has very low effort, I don't want them on my team. Because volleyball is not an easy sport, volleyball is not a low effort sport. gotta show up every day and you gotta work your hardest. ⁓ if you don't have those things, it's really hard to do anything. those a lot of things that I can see ⁓ pretty even in the summertime, but you can't tell somebody like, don't come to my workouts anymore, even though they're optional. that's very,
Panther Volleyball: yeah, I understand. ⁓ So I'm gonna to flip that one. ⁓ so for anyone who's listening that's not a and may not know, what kind of effort, energy, and planning goes into your preseason, your workouts. ⁓
Ashley Gaines: Okay.
Panther Volleyball: your rubric for what you're looking for and planning for improvement upon the previous season. Cause I don't think anyone who's not a coach would even think about what's going on behind behind the scenes. They might have something to say about the fact that they don't like what's happening, but they may not know what went into creating that environment.
Ashley Gaines: Yeah, I tell my girls this all the time. I'm still a learner of the game. So I don't think you're ever too old to stop learning about anything. So I still learn the game. I go to clinics and learn from other coaches what they're doing in their gym at the college level, like what's working. I talked to other local coaches like, hey, how are you seeing service Eve different? Cause this drill, I hate it. We're not doing anything with it. Like how can I do something different? spending a lot of time just watching videos. How can I change a drill? How can I make it for us? There's a lot more that goes into it than I think people ever realize. I never realized that until I became a coach. ⁓ I sat down one day and I was like making out a practice plan and like only got through half of my practice plan at practice because it was just, you didn't meet the goal. So when you don't meet the goal, you got to do the consequence.
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Gaines: And so I was like, okay, like I got to look at this a little bit different. And so break down your times and now it's how can I break down the times and focus on this group and this group and give everybody all the amount of reps. And so I just, I don't know. There's a lot of times I don't really sleep a lot. not a good loser. So after we lose a game, ⁓ don't sleep. I've told my girls before I have stayed up and rearranged my bedroom furniture. ⁓
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Gaines: Just because the mind is going. think about pieces that you could have done better. Like I'm just moving my bedroom furniture sometimes. Yeah, there's I tell my girls I'm willing to give 100 % effort. So I want you to as well. I don't want you to ever see me slacking. I don't want to ever come to practice and not have a game plan for something. And so when you as a coach are putting in that effort and that amount of energy, your players do it with you. They reciprocate it back. And that makes it so much easier than what you think. This year will be a little bit different. ⁓ had 13 girls on my varsity team. Out of those 13, 10 of them were seniors. ⁓ so I'm losing quite a bit. But I have... ⁓ Come So I have some really great girls coming in. ⁓
Panther Volleyball: ⁓ no. I'm short, I can come play, I'm short.
Ashley Gaines: And they already kind of have the mindset of, my gosh, we're not of their caliber of play. And so I've already tried to tell them we're not them. We're us. Like we're a different team now kind of thing. that mindset is going to have to change and your goals don't have to change, but how we get there might look a little bit different. Like we can still be a top contender in our conference. We can still go to the state playoffs. We can still make these runs ⁓ we've been doing, but how we get there just might look a lot different now. So that is just a different mindset that you have to accept as a coach, as a player, and everything else. So that goes a little bit different. Like I'm going to have to look at skills a lot differently than I did this past year. Not having as many people in every position that I did looks a little bit different. So now summer workouts look a little bit different because we need to work on some different things to build us into our preseason to get us ready for what season is going to look like losing 10 seniors. So adjusting everything every year is different. year is different, but it's kind of fun. Again, I'm a math teacher, so I'm a nerd. So like finding the missing pieces are always fun to me. Like puzzle. So the girls also have fun when you like do different things with them and you put them in different positions and they're like, am I going to be playing here? I'm like, I don't know. Like I'm just seeing how this works in my head. It looked like it was going to be great. So let's see how it plays out in real life. ⁓ so just trying different drills, trying different things. The biggest thing that I've learned over, and I have not been doing it that long, but probably over the past 10 years since being an assistant and being a head coach at high levels of high school is just not doing the same thing over again. So I might have the same three or four drills for certain things, but doing the same drill every single day kills. kills the gym because yeah. And so that's one thing that I've really noticed of we can do serve receive, but I can have three different drills and we can do one every other day. I don't have to do the same one every single day. And we're still getting that repetition, but it looks different. Like maybe we'll do it with just our defense. We play a lot of servers versus passers. Who can win versus that? We do a lot of game situations. Can we get a side out first ball six times in a row and work through our rotation? So just find a different ways to do that.
Panther Volleyball: ⁓ yeah, it's boring.
Ashley Gaines: It's just all part of it and I think as you learn your team you kind of adjust to those things. I didn't, I will say I never thought it took this much time to workout plan, preseason plan, make a schedule, your strength of schedule, making practice plans, adjusting practice plans. Sometimes I have two practice plans because I'm like if I don't like the way this drill works we're hard left turn and go to something completely different. So a lot more than people see. There's a lot more that goes into it than meets the eye, but I think that's with anything in life. So.
Panther Volleyball: Okay, so you've talked about kind of moving people around position-wise. so when you are doing your tryouts, are you roundab? looking for positions or I I think I need two setters. Like how if if you are not dead set on someone playing a specific position. You need them to be more of a utility player. How are you like weeding these kids out and saying that one can do what I think I might need them to do, but I know if I need them to do it. yet Like how how are you making those selections based on holes or that you might have with your existing players?
Ashley Gaines: So lot of that comes on day three of tryouts for me. I've watched them, obviously, most of the time through the summer, through the first day of tryouts. And I kind of know what pieces I'm missing, obviously, when you lose girls and stuff like that from year to year. But I just come up with a bunch of different six on, excuse me, six on six scenarios. Let's enter a free ball and let's play six on six. And this round you might play outside, but the next round I want to see you play middle. And after that, I want to see you play back row. After that, I want to see you play the right side. Like, what all can you do? Like, let's just see how you handle game situations. How are you going to respond when something doesn't go the way it would when you're on the outside? or vice versa, whatever the case may be. So I know, hey, if we're ever in a bind, if so and so gets hurt, I know I can hurt somebody else there. And I always tell my girls like, They tell me what they're trying out for, but I always tell them the more you know, the more positions you play, the more valuable you are to a team. So most of my girls, and I tell my pins, if you can hit outside, you can hit right side. If you can hit right side, you can hit outside. a hard concept for them to learn. Who are just used to being the outside hitter. They're like, I can't hit on the right side. I beg to differ because my top score her freshman year on my varsity team. She just graduated this year, became my right side for the past two years and shut down any outside that I needed to be blocked. So I beg to differ and I will fight that battle with anyone she can turn it on. And sometimes she was our go-to hitter because she just cranks the ball on an angle and setters don't play defense. So that's where she's hitting the ball too. And so it works out, but a lot of that just comes with
Panther Volleyball: Mm-hmm.
Ashley Gaines: telling them, be valuable, be versatile, play more positions than you think you need. The only person that really stops is kind of your libero. My liberos would love to also be hitters, but they don't.
Panther Volleyball: ⁓ they all think they can hit. Okay, so now we're gonna get into the portion that nobody likes. when the goes up and your name or your tryout number is not on it, as a parent, how do you console your child? How do you encourage child? What is what is your next step moving forward or what should the next step be moving forward from a parent's perspective?
Ashley Gaines: ⁓ number one is just being there for their kid. I think is the biggest thing. I think as parents and I don't have any kids of my own, but I like to think of my, my players as my kids. But as parents, I think we're so quick when we have somebody upset that we love, especially your kid, the mama bear, the papa bear wants to come out and you want to protect them. I totally get that. But them seeing you react angry only makes them more frustrated or flustered or upset. Meeting your kid where they are. Letting them have their upset time. Like, letting them cry. It's okay to feel emotions and I think we forget that as a society and whole. It's okay to be angry about things. It's okay to be sad about things. It's okay to cry about it. Like, you worked really hard and you wanted to make this team and you didn't. So now what's our next step going forward? As a parent, I would love to see parents respond to, I'm proud of you for putting yourself out there to try out for something like this. Maybe reach out to the coach, the player, not the parent, but the parent encourage their child, their daughter to reach out to the coach and see what they can work on in this time in the off season of, what can I do before tryouts next year to be better, to maybe have a spot on this team? or was there somewhere that had an area of concern in my tryouts that I can work on? I've even had girls who I've cut who come back to me and say, can I be a manager so I can still see what volleyball is like? So I can still learn, so I can still get better. And a lot of that comes from the parents pushing them to continue to go outside of their comfort zone. It's really hard when you're a freshman or even a sophomore or junior or whatever age you're trying out. It's really hard in high school to go outside your comfort zone. and do something like that. And so not having parents bash the coach, not having parents bash the program, I think what a lot of parents don't understand is how tough a lot of coaches take tryout cuts. It's not an easy decision. It never has been. Nobody wants to pick the best of the best. I don't do it lightly. I don't know of any coach that does it lighthearted. I have a lot of help in my tryouts. have people who obviously have my assistant coaches here. I've other people from other programs come and help me and just kind of evaluate. ⁓ You to ask yourself as a coach a lot of hard questions of... What is this girl's role going to be on this team? Is she just going to sit there and not really play in a game, but she's going to be a practice player? And is that girl going to be okay just being a practice player, never seen the floor? So there's a lot of things from that and just thinking forward of how are they going to impact our team in the years to come? If I keep her this year, what good is she going to be her junior or senior year? Is she going to get better to make any kind of impact? So it's not ever a thing of, I don't like her. ⁓ she did this. It's never like that. I think a lot of parents think it is. It's never really black and white. There's a lot of gray in there that is tough for coaches to make those decisions. And so I think as a parent being able to support your kid in that way and say, Hey, reach out to the coach and see what could you have done better? What could you do to get better for next year? If, if trying out next year is still an option, ask her, what are some places, a rec league, a travel ball league, where can you get better in the off season from now in June or July, August, when we start to the end of the season? or back until the summer until you start again. Like where can we go and get better kind of thing. Or even just encourage your kid, maybe volleyball is not your sport. Maybe we need to go try and run cross country, play tennis, ⁓ just play golf. I'm thinking about sports that are available in the fall when we have playoffs. But, and some of them find ⁓
Panther Volleyball: Here you go with running again. Yeah.
Ashley Gaines: their niche playing those sports, playing something else. And there, I have girls who used to play volleyball for me that play golf, that play tennis now, or that even run cross country. And we have a great relationship. Like I love them. They see me in the hall. We talk, we hug. Like it's, there's never any hard feelings there, but they also understand sometimes that maybe volleyball wasn't their sport, or maybe they didn't give their best effort that time. And there was somebody who was better than them. And That comes with maturity for a kid. But as a parent, I think if you meet them with that, support them any way that you can, but don't lash out and don't say, this coach is making a mistake, da da da, because that just upsets them even more. You're you're also making them feel like they weren't good enough to make a team when you say things like that. So just saying, hey, better luck next time. What can we do from here? How should how should we talk to the coach, or email them, go see them at school the next day, know, however else you can respond to that. But sometimes I think parents being angry and upset too just kind of makes it worse for the kid and they lose complete interest or love for anything.
Panther Volleyball: That was a beautiful way to state that. ⁓ have one, this is where I'm like, what's your what's your final word? What's your final message to either parents or a player? ⁓ parents, you've had enough. ⁓ is your a to a player that's, looking for this information? They're about to head into their tryouts. What's a final word of advice or something that's
Ashley Gaines: Ha
Panther Volleyball: Pretty simple, but they may not have thought of that would help them along their way when they walk into that gym for the first time.
Ashley Gaines: I would say probably two things. ⁓ one, be you. Don't try to be somebody else in the gym. As a freshman, it's gonna be really hard for you to be that girl who's a senior who is looking and talking to college coaches, going to play at college. That's really hard. Be you and own who you are. And number two would just be don't settle. Don't settle for just doing the bare minimum. Don't settle for... ⁓ anything. Don't settle for being the lowest in effort or the lowest in energy. Be everything that you can be in those two hours or however long your tryouts are. So don't ever settle for what you're giving. Always try and give a little bit more. If I'm not making a perfect pass, well tomorrow I'm gonna do better kind of thing. So don't ever settle for where you're at that day. Always push to go a little bit harder the next day.
Panther Volleyball: I mean that makes absolute sense. It seems easy enough. At the end of the day, it it sounds like just be confident in your ability. I think that's what translates to volleyball or any sport as a whole. You you're going it's a game of errors.
Ashley Gaines: Yeah.
Panther Volleyball: Tryouts are about errors and how, how you bounce back from them. So all that translates directly into what you'll be doing on the court when you make your team and you're interacting with your teammates and you're learning how to gel and and overcome things. So I mean, that sounds like the most simple and the most universal thing to bring into your, your tryouts is to always, always give it your all. I believe that we've had a fantastic discussion today. ⁓ thank you so much, Ashley, for time and really breaking things down for any players, parents. ⁓ or other coaches or anyone who's curious as to what happens with the tryout process what coaches really looking for. I really hope that this whoever's listening and I really appreciate your time and your insight.
Ashley Gaines: Absolutely, thank you for having me.
Panther Volleyball: It has been my absolute pleasure and we hope to have you back again. So everyone listening, this is Coach Ashley Gaines. And we will catch you guys next time. ⁓ All Thank
Ashley Gaines: Sounds good. Thank you again.