Crafting Your Reality

Write it Down. pic.twitter.com/tuWWN9w0FV

— Book Therapy (@Book_therapy223) August 27, 2026

 

Image created with ChatGPT Plus

When Richie McCaw was eight years old, his uncle asked him about his future. McCaw said that he wanted to become the greatest New Zealand All-Blacks rugger. His uncle got a piece of paper and told Richie to sign it, "Richie McCaw, G.A.B." short for Greatest All-Blacks. 

Years later he fulfilled that promise. "Believe it and become it." 

To commit to a dream, commit to the process. 

Lagniappe. Evolve your attack and force the defense to account for you.

  

Message Received

Coaches send messages and often hope they're 'heard'. The urgency varies. 

MVB 26 is set. The lineups are not. Coach Scott Celli delivered the message that the next eleven days would decide the opening day lineups. 

The players heard and the operative word at practice was described as "competitive." 

Message received. 

Lagniappe. 

A team simply cannot be consistently great on game night until it is first consistently great at practice

— Matt Kramer (@coachk6463) August 27, 2026

Establishing Your Standards

 

Image from ChatGPT using an Allistair McCaw quote

Your coaches show up on time, prepared, ready to go. Successful student-athletes create and adhere to high standards and encourage teammates to meet or exceed them. 

The best teams are "player-led." Set non-negotiable standards as a team with everyone "bought in." 

The 2008 set standards for themselves under a theme of "Ubuntu." 

The Celtics never formally released their philosophy. ChatGPT assembled this list:

Your list is what matters. A shorter list, crafted from a big list of "team values" often proves easier to remember and live by. 

My coaching philosophy was simplified to TIA:

Teamwork

Improvement

Accountability

That's fine, but that was for a developmental setting more than designed as a "competitive framework." 

Develop your list, embrace and own it. 

Lagniappe. What sacrifices are you willing to make? 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Allistair McCaw (@bechampionminded)

Excellence

“No team, organization or culture simply drifts into excellence…it’s a result of intensional effort and purpose…It’s built over time through trust, alignment, and consistency.”
— Chapter 4: ‘Standards of Excellence.’#ConsistentExcellence
📕 🔗 https://t.co/YpGfca0TmO pic.twitter.com/3cssTmVsdV

— Allistair McCaw (@AllistairMcCaw) August 27, 2026

Excellence isn't gifted. The best coach in the world can't "award" you excellence.

Coaches create structure, inform proper technique, and make corrections. 

"Coaching includes correction. Correction is not criticism."

When does a team have a chance at excellence? Excellence happens when the players are as driven and desirous of success as the coach...and have "enough" talent. 

As Bill Belichick would say, "We'll see how it goes." 

Lagniappe. Read, communicate, execute. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @transformationalvballtraining

Making the Improbable Play Every Day

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.

Make the improbable possible. Be "dirt dogs." 

Make memories for yourselves and the community. 

Little girls fashion big stories. Stephanie Crovo (left) played on the 2012 State Title team. Liz Sheerin played on the 2005 State finalists. Dr. Victoria Crovo was one of the great competitors and leaders in MVB history. 

Why should the Melrose community be excited about MVB 26? "Dirt dogs" are everywhere. 

Excellence 

The sign in the UNC Women's Soccer locker room reads, "Excellence Is Our Only Agenda." 

Be your best at home, in school, and on the court. Live the 'Fourth Agreement', "Always do your best." 

Teamwork 

Alan Williams was a walk-on at Wake Forest. He had scored 51 points in a high school basketball game, but was an afterthought in Winston-Salem. All the player got a personalized gym bag, black and gold. He didn't. He returned to his locker later and found one - with the engraved number of the team's star player, who gifted his. He understood that "Teammates Matter," later the title of Williams' book. 

Culture 

"Fight for your culture every day." 

MIT graduates can buy a class ring with the "brass rat" (beaver) on it - the "hardest working in the animal kingdom." Your culture is your ecosystem, your support system, your ethos. 

Improvement  

A one percent daily improvement leads to a 37 fold improvement over a year, the power of exponential growth.

The Minnesota Twins released David Ortiz in 2002. Ortiz had "holes" in his swing. He closed them. 

Antifragility

Antifragile systems respond well to stress. Evolution is antifragile, making daughter organisms superior over time.

Here's an AI (Microsoft Copilot) take:

The three most important takeaways from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile are:

1. Antifragility: Systems that gain from disorder

The core idea is that some systems don’t just survive volatility — they benefit from it. Muscles grow from stress; evolution advances through random mutation; decentralized societies adapt faster than centralized ones. Taleb distinguishes three categories:

• Fragile — harmed by volatility

• Robust — resists volatility but doesn’t improve

• Antifragile — improves because of volatility

This framing pushes you to design your life, decisions, and systems so they have convexity — more upside than downside when randomness hits.

2. Via Negativa: Subtraction strengthens systems

Taleb argues that the fastest path to strength is removing sources of fragility, not adding new features or interventions. Examples include eliminating debt, cutting harmful habits, reducing over‑optimization, and avoiding unnecessary medical or bureaucratic meddling (“iatrogenics”). The principle: remove what makes you weak before adding what might make you strong.

3. Optionality & the Barbell Strategy: Asymmetric upside beats prediction

Taleb insists that you cannot reliably forecast rare, high‑impact events (“Black Swans”). Instead, you should position yourself to benefit from them.

Two tools make this possible:

• Optionality — small bets with limited downside and large upside

• Barbell strategy — keep most resources extremely safe while allocating a small portion to high‑risk, high‑reward opportunities

This structure protects you from ruin while exposing you to positive randomness.

MVB 26 has a shot at Antifragility through training and roster depth.

Leadership

Everyone can lead. Lead with punctuality and preparation. Lead by supporting others and never being a distraction.

Competitiveness

Compete. Win every day. Make competitiveness your personal and group brand. There used to be a term, "Gym Rats," describing players who were always in the gym, working on their game. Be a gym rat. 

Sportsmanship

Play the game the right way - play smart, play hard, play together, play fair. MVB 2004 won the MIAA Sportsmanship Award.  

Mentoring

"Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." Be welcoming, be helpful to all teammates. Remember the Silver Rule, "Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you."

Mudita

Playing with joy is a skill. Mudita comes from Sanskrit meaning "your joy is my joy." Be happy, not envious, for the success of others. 

Lagniappe. Play like J-Mac. You've heard of chicken and waffles...she served up chicken wings and pancakes.  

Three- Second Rule*

*Adapted from my basketball blog. 

As student-athletes, aspire to communication excellence - verbal, nonverbal, presentation.

Part of that includes better use of slides in your presentations. 

View on Threads

For example, here's a messy slide from an upcoming piece.

As student-athletes, aspire to communication excellence - verbal, nonverbal, presentation.

Part of that includes better use of slides in your presentations.

Both the original and the updated slides are created with ChatGPT Plus. 

Play smart. 

Play tough. 

Play disciplined. 

Become a storyteller.

Simplify. 

Use better tools. 

Lagniappe. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Allistair McCaw (@bechampionminded)

MVB 26

This is MVB 26!

Seniors

• Anna Burns
• Maggie Shoemaker 
• Kayla Ton

Juniors

• Ella Friedlaender
• Elise Marchais 
• Sabrina McArt 
• Gen Overlan
• Mia Sasso
• Sadie Smith

Sophomores

• Lorena Contin
• Alisa Dautovic
• Danni DiGiorgio
• Amelie Johnson
• Leila Kiggundu
• Adriana Santoriello

New players for 2026

Mia Sasso (2028)                                                                                    Lorena Contin (2029)

Threads

Threads matter. You finish a garment with a thread. Loose threads, "Irish pennants" are a Navy expression for imperfect, "raggedy" uniform presentation. And pulling on a thread can unravel a garment, too. 

The worst part of coaching arrives today - cut down day. Coaches don’t interact with “numbers” or “assets.” They work with flesh-and-blood little girls with big feelings. 

"Misaeng" the piece that has not yet come into play. 

Relationships are the life of the profession. Coaches can’t fully know the joy or disappointment without reflecting on their past. As a player you remember...forever. 

Once it happened with an 8.5 by 11 inch piece of paper tacked onto a cork board. Your name (alphabetically) appeared or didn't. Impersonal. No middle ground. There is no 'ideal way' to do it. 

Some players inhabit the "continual ascension" arc. They don't think about themselves that way, but they know they're "in the mix." 

Other players know they're on the margin. 

Stories always exist about the underrated player. As an assistant, I got the last pick. I saw this athletic, smooth, low-skilled player as a fifth grader. Something catches your "projection" eye. I told Ralph Labella that she was the one. The last became our 1A or 1B, depending on whom you ask. And she played on the MVB State Title 2012 team. Fast forward...I saw a picture of her with an engagement ring. 

Coaches remember not only the exceptional player but the excellent teammates. Bella Federico, Zoe Smith, and Ava Wenzel always come to mind. "Get on the floor" was an Avaism. 

Today blends competition, connection, and chemistry. It's always the worst day. 

Lagniappe. He never went...dark. "Let's look at the substance in it." 

Dan Campbell says Sean Payton never let losing turn into doom and gloom because great teams diagnose the substance of a failure instead of reacting to the emotion surrounding it

“Here’s the first thing I would say about Sean. Sean never got down. He never went gray or dark. He… pic.twitter.com/mPcqtRXCxA

— Josh Chambers (@JoshChambers) August 24, 2026

Tryouts Continue

Temperatures eased and competition did not on the second day of MVB 26 tryouts.

Every season has multiple phases - tryouts and preseason, the first two-thirds of the regular season, and the stretch run into the postseason.

The lineup won’t be set coming out of tryouts and extensive scrimmages and the PlayDay set the stage for the regular season.

Your job everyday?

• Bring a great attitude.
• Be a great teammate. Energize and support.
• Be coachable - we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.
• Focus on each task “play by play.”
• Prioritize improvement.
• Do the little things.

Coaching, Playing, and Chess

Chess is more than half a millenium in age. Both in spite of and because of its age, it is relevant to competiton. 

 

View on Threads

What everyday lessons does the game teach us? 

1. Protect your king. 

Many games are lost not won because of ill-constructed defenses. Exceptional MVB clubs had strong defenses to complement strong attack. 

2. A pawn can become a queen.

Each piece has strategic value and deserves special consideration. 

3. The pieces work together.

You cannot win with a "strong bishop" or a "powerful knight." As in Misaeng, a piece that "has not come into play" can change the game. Work to become that piece.

4. Learn from and love our losses. 

Every match teaches us lessons if we are curious, open, and thoughtful. 

5. Don't believe you're "the smartest guy in the room." 

Chess taught us that machines (e.g. Deep Blue) could defeat the strongest play. It also taught us that the combination of "man and machine" in Centaur Chess could produce even greater strength. Don't ignore or belittle technology. It is here to help us. 

6. Be on the lookout. 

Watch how our thoughts become words, words become actions, and actions become habits. "Begin with the end in mind" - creating better habits results in better versions of ourselves. 

Lagniappe. Never forget the fundamentals. Is it "Newtonian physics?" Use your platform to direct passes both horizontally and vertically.

 

Reliability

As many as 962 English words end in bility. Many have meaning for volleyball:

• Ability
• Accountability
• Adaptability
• Coachability
• Durability
• Flexibility
• Reliability

Of those, reliability may be the most underrated.

Reliability means showing up prepared, ready from the first ball, and performing with consistency. Reliability gets and keeps you on the floor.

The reliable player doesn't have to be the loudest, the most popular, or even the most talented. But coaches sleep better at night knowing exactly what they will get from that player.

Reliability is a feature, not a bug.

Every team needs players who bring confidence, collaboration, and attention to detail. They become the glue that holds practices together and the foundation that allows teammates to perform at their best.

What does reliability look like?

Purpose

Reliable players make intentional plays. They understand the situation and act with purpose. They don't simply react to the game; they think through it.

Decision Excellence

Volleyball is a game of choices.

When to attack. When to tip. When to cover. When to communicate. Reliable players consistently make good decisions on and off the court. They avoid unnecessary drama and unnecessary errors.

Emotional Maturity

The reliable player plays under control.

A bad call, a missed serve, or a lost point does not create a second mistake. They manage their emotions and remain focused on the next play. They stop opponent momentum and sustain their team's. 

Execution

Reliable players have standards.

They understand that details matter. Footwork matters. Communication matters. Ball control matters. Their consistent fundamentals earn trust, respect, and often recognition. 

Becoming Reliable

Reliability is not a talent. It is a habit. It begins with attitude. Positive attitudes create positive actions.

It grows through communication. Reliable players practice ELO communication - early, loud, and often.

Habits sustain and feed reliability. Reliable player arrive on time, prepared. They're in their notebook. They recover properly. Their attention to detail  marks their character and competence.

Finally, reliability spreads through modeling excellence. Teammates notice who works, who prepares, and who can be counted on.

Ability may get a player noticed. Reliability earns trust. And trust is one of the most valuable currencies in volleyball.

Lagniappe. I'm reading "Habits That Make A Champion" by Allistair McCaw. Here's a quote:

"“Success has to do with deliberate practice. Practice must be focused, determined, and in an environment where there’s feedback.” – Malcolm Gladwell"

Lagniappe 2. What's your strength and conditioning plan? 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by YASH BHARDWAJ || VOLLEYBALL COACH (@volleyball_basic)

The Hay Is not in the Barn (and That's OK)

Champions don't skip steps. When the whistle blows in September, some say "the hay is in the barn" because they know their job, take care of the details, put the team first, and do the job. 

But even then, is the hay really in the barn?

What helps put the hay in the barn? 

Skill 

Skill evolves during the season. There are ebbs and flows depending on player development, health, and team spirit. 

Communication

Communication may grow at a pace exceeding individual or team skill. Poor communication will limit both of the above and can separate success and failure. Communication has to arise in the first tryout and grow from there. 

Collaboration

 Historically, MVB clubs have improved substantially during the season. A sense of urgency is needed as the regular season starts with experienced, strong teams in the ML12. 

Athleticism

Training balances preparedness (power, quickness, conditioning, balance) with needs for maintenance and avoiding fatigue during the season. Some athletes excel and training and sell themselves short with recovery (hydration, nutrition, sleep, muscle recovery, etc.). 

 Volleyball IQ

Studying volleyball theory, video (e.g. college video, coaching clinics), and watching your team and individual video are all elements that help raise volleyball IQ. Current players have a greater duration and breadth of experience than MVB players from 20 plus years ago. That doesn't mean they're all better, but across the roster the experience level is higher. 

Resilience

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all." MVB has had many memorable five set matches where resilience and talent triumphed. In 2002, Melrose outlasted Dracut 38-36 (games to 30). In 2005, Melrose defeated Division 1 Andover in five sets and an outstanding Central Catholic (future D1) club in the playoff quarterfinals. Defeating Bishop Fenwick in the 2010 Sectionals was another five set marathon as well as the epic comeback versus Billerica in the 2021 playoffs.  

No team is too resilient. 

The hay is in the field. Over the next few weeks, we'll see if MVB 26 can get it into the barn. 

Lagniappe. Dreams. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @mojovolleyballclub

 

 

 

 

 

Standards, Character, and Competence - MVB and Film

All opinions expressed in the blog are my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.

You inform your career arc. In retrospect, every method is obvious. 

Art imitates life. There’s a reason certain films stay with you. They’re not about explosions or plot twists. They’re about people doing their job under pressure.

Different settings reveal the same truths. On a submarine, in a courtroom, in the  dugout, or on the court. 

Build the System First

In Apollo 13, the mission goes wrong. What saves the crew isn’t luck. It’s a system built before the crisis:

• checklists
• communication
• trust

No one improvises chaos. We fall to the level of our training. That’s team sports.

Character Reveals Itself Under Stress

In Bridge of Spies, Tom Hanks plays a lawyer who refuses to bend. He does hard better, because it’s right.

There’s a line in coaching:

“Character is what you do when no one is watching.”

Maybe this is better:

Character is what you do when everyone is watching and it would be easier not to. Sport reveals character. 

Competence Earns Trust

In Moneyball, the edge isn’t effort.

It’s clarity.

• What matters
• What doesn’t
• What wins

Billy Beane's assistant Peter Brand says that teams are "buying wins." More precisely, they're "buying runs." 

Competence defines repeatable performance. Players who weren't the most famous, the most desired, or the best paid achieved stunning success. 

Teammates trust players who:

• are where they’re supposed to be
• do what they’re supposed to do
• over and over again

"Repetition makes reputations."

Leadership Is Decision-Making

Every option carries risk. There is no perfect answer because there ar better and worse decisions. Coach Scott Celli can’t wait for certainty. He projects and makes the best decision available under the current conditions.

On a court, that player action looks like:

• taking the right swing
• making the right read
• living with the result

Indecision is friction.

Standards Are the System

In Crimson Tide, the conflict is simple:

What is the standard? Who decides? Good teams don’t argue about effort. They don’t negotiate toughness. The standard is set.

• How we communicate
• How we prepare
• How we respond

Sean McDermott challenged his Buffalo Bills, "That’s what it gets back to in terms of earning the right to win. How we meet, how we talk, how we work out, how we practice when we do practice, how we play – that’s the standard we’re trying to get to every day.”

The Connection

Great films and great teams share the same foundation:

• Character says, "do the right thing."
• Competence allows us to execute the thing right.
• Standards permit us to do it the same way more often.

For Players

Ask yourself:

• Can your teammates trust you? Team first...
• Do you know your job? Attention to detail...
• Do you do it the same way every day? Consistency...

Bottom Line

Build your system on:

• character
• competence
• standards

Lagniappe

"As the twig is bent so grows the tree." The best teams don’t look surprised when things go well. They look prepared. Because execution follows preparation.

Watch the 2011 team against a D1 powerhouse...execution at a high level. Efficiency doesn't have to be spectacular.