Add Value to Expand Your Role

Great players don't desire the star role.
Great players focus on starring in the role that their team needs.
Most players want to be the best, but many fail to figure out how to be the best at what the team needs to win. pic.twitter.com/vnOUq6fXXU

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 3, 2025

"There is always a pecking order." - Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat coach

"Star in your role." Whether you are the 'star player' or a role player, know your job and add value to the team. 

• Make your teammates better to impact winning. That is the ultimate mark of exceptional players.
• Put the team first.
• Be a great teammate, positive and encouraging. 
• "Always do your best." 
• Have a great attitude and be coachable. 

 Lagniappe. Follow these guidelines. 

~ via @CoachBobStarkey pic.twitter.com/N9V27uAQlL

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) April 2, 2025

Are You Ready for More JEOPARDY? Offseason and More

Jeopardy has been a longstanding quiz show favorite, first premiering on March 30, 1964. The current syndicated version has aired since September 1984.

As you know, your answers should be in the form of a question.

Let's play JEOPARDY (from JeopardyLabs.com) 

Make Your Own Jeopardy Game with JeopardyLabs!

Why Not Get on the Bandwagon?

Baseball season is here. Volleyball season is coming. 

Reasons to play/watch MVB

• Positive culture, superior player experience
• Fun
• Sustainable competitive advantage - exceptional coaching
• Winning - 1 state title, 10 sectional titles, TNTC league titles
• (TNTC = too numerous to count)
• Player development track record (19 All-State players)
• Watch elite young women athletes 
• Every play results in scoring

Image from MVB Instagram

Lagniappe. Playing the low ball. The hips are below the ball on contact.  

Post #4500 - Things Worth Having

Getting a great education - hard.

Graduating with honors - hard.

Navigating successful relationships - hard.

Raising a family - hard.

Achieving your athletic goals - hard. 

"Most things in life-that are worth having-are hard.
You have to work for it.
The other side of hard is usually something really good, but most people can't push through it."

Many want to be great, but few want to do what greatness requires.
That’s the difference. pic.twitter.com/4QsItT2CHh

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 2, 2025

Do hard well. 

The Most Important Time in Your Life

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. Not an official publication of any organization. "Excellence is our only agenda." 

Seize the power of today. Invest in yourself. In math, English, or history class ask "what did I learn today?" and "how can I apply this going forward?" 

Read great books. Director Werner Herzog shares a simple message. "Read. Read. Read. Read. Read." The opening line of Anna Karenina summarizes the following 1205 pages. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Understand that topic sentence. You can skip the rest.  

People ask, "what books do you highly recommend?" Jon Gordon's Positive Dog resonated about the power of positivity. "The Boys in the Boat" weaves a narrative about the Great Depression, the rise of fascism is 1930's Germany, and the true story of a boy who grows up to row for the 1936 US Olympic team. 

Then, "What are you reading now?" I always read multiple books, currently "The Innocent" by David Baldacci, "Originals" by Adam Grant, and "The Program" by Eric Kapitulik.   

Learn every day. "Learn five things every day and soon you know a lot." Of course at your age you learn far more. Once volleyball was summarized as "dig, set, spike." That evolved to "pass, set, hit." Score with service, attacking, and block-kills. Read the play to CARE - concentrate - anticipate - react - execute. The only way that matters is how your current coach wants it done. 

Make friends with the dead. Only about seven percent of the people ever born are alive today. Ignoring the wisdom of past lives misses out on a lot. Look up Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, and Herstory. 

Sport is a microcosm of life. Your primary team is family. You have other teams - school, community, volleyball, workplace. Years ago I complimented Kayla Wyland to her parents. Her mom said, "she's every bit as nice at home." How you do anything is how you do everything. 

Choose to invest your time instead of spending it. 

Summary: 

• Read great books. 
• Learn every day.
  
• Make friends with the dead. 

Lagniappe. Become an original. 

Making Decisions

Your effort today tells your coaches everything they need to know about how prepared you are to help the team tomorrow.
Great teams aren’t made of players who get what they want — they’re made of players who give what’s needed. pic.twitter.com/w9fKoHrbgP

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) March 31, 2025

With a little more than four and a half months until tryouts, how can players get the odds on their side? 

1) Commitment. Commit to Anson Dorrance's continual ascension. Should volleyball be important to you? That's entirely your call. 

2) Collaboration. "Look for the helpers." - Mr. Rogers  It's hard to do the work unless you know what work is needed. Find an MVB resource or another player to attach yourself to like a remora on a shark. Watch and learn from the shark. 

3) Command. Work to master the fundamentals. Make consistency your brand. Refine the relevant core skills - serve/receive, attack/block, set, and pass. Break them down into the pieces such as footwork, armswing, et cetera. Then play as much as you can. 

Lagniappe. There is no secret.

 

Be a Curator of Wisdom

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. Not an official publication of any organization. Blame no one else. 

Acquire and share accumulated wisdom over your lifetime. Webster's definition of curator includes: "a person at a museum, zoo, etc. who is in charge of a specific collection or subject area."

Here's an excellent collection of concepts from Dave Kline: 

21 leadership lessons I revisit weekly (you should too) pic.twitter.com/GMAZUUKdJp

— Dave Kline (@dklineii) March 30, 2025

Several particularly resonated:

1) Set high standards. Believe your team will meet them.

2) Reasonable people will draw different conclusions without a shared picture of excellence. (Making a team is not enough...chasing excellence is a shared vision)

3) Small feedback given regularly is coaching. (Coaching is not criticism. Coaches mentor players and teams to translate process into excellence.)

4) Subtracting is 10x harder than adding. Which is what makes it 10x more valuable. (Do more of what works and less of what doesn't).

5) Your culture is the sum of everything you celebrate minus everything you tolerate. (What we tolerate sets the floor of achievement.) 

6) Trust people with the truth. (Coaching advances players and teams toward the truth.) 

7) Your team will mimic your actions before they follow your words. ("Your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear a word you say.")

8) It's not real unless it's written down. (Be clear and concise. Share.)

Benjamin Franklin informed these in seven words. "Well done is better than well said." 

When you find someone who shares productive content, check in. There may be more than one nugget in that stream. 

Lagniappe. Loaded jumps will increase your block touch. 

Lagniappe 2. Martin suggests ways to make warmups fun, competitive, and productive. 

  

 

Coaches See Everything

Geno is talking about recruiting MUDITA.

Finding players who…

- Play with joy
- Love the game
- Are WE-first not me-first
- Celebrate their teammates

Are getting harder to find.

ATHLETES: Body Language screams.

Coaches are looking 👀.pic.twitter.com/LmBoacCiFT

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 1, 2025

As I've discussed, "mudita" means being happy for others' success. "Your joy is my joy."

Nobody enjoys being around negative, self-absorbed, sulking people. Your energy and enthusiasm impacts your teammates. Energize yourself and your teammates.

It's common for players who had success at a young age to expect immediate success in high school sports. It's also variable. Dominating against thirteen and fourteen year-olds doesn't always translate to dominating seventeen, eighteen, even nineteen year-olds who are bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced. 

Years ago a Middlesex League basketball team (not Melrose) was favored to go deep in the playoffs. The day before the tournament, a girl "stole" the boyfriend of a teammate. The team fractured immediately and lost their opener. One and done. 

Stay humble; stay hungry. Be team-oriented and be a great teammate. Your coaches see everything.