Play volleyball. Excellent teams inhabit "Play the game" not "Work the game."
Keep it simple and execute. Have fun.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
What Are Your Most Important Words?
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
Always quickly read through the directions first.
Choose wisely. Most of you don't need to do anything different. You're already on a great path and can stay on it.
Words may surprise you. Make and initial list and revise it. Rework it, print and save, and follow.
Warren Buffett advises the 25-5 method. Make a list of priorities and then narrow down to what works for you.
Here's a takeoff.
- Family
- Academics
- Attitude
- Balance
- Integrity
- Values
- Teamwork
- Judgment
- Process
- Habits
- Gratitude
- Toughness
- Commitment
- Discipline
- Effort
- Resilience
- Standards
- Preparation
- Accountability
- Confidence
- Positivity
- Humility
- Reliability
- Fun
- Simplicity
Confine yourself to five to ten...force yourself to choose.
That doesn't mean ignoring others not at the top.
Family, school, and attitude belong at the top.
Balance is underrated. Confidence balances arrogance and doubt. Courage balances recklessness and fear. Work-life balance is a skill.
"Habits are votes for the type of person we want to become." - James Clear, Atomic Habits
"Simple is hard." Trust is hard. Trust your family. Create the life that you want.
*You don't have to do any of this. Stay frosty.
Lagniappe. Summitt.
Pat Summitt pass out sent to Sally Jenkins pic.twitter.com/tJkyMjKcPH
— Bob Starkey (@CoachBobStarkey) June 28, 2026
Statistical Update (Game 1)
Sample size matters.
Kills:
A key stat that we don't have is "Attack efficiency." Hitting performance is more complex than raw numbers of kills.
Attack efficiency = (Kills - Errors)/Attempts
Serving:
High performance will mandate a higher percentage of points/serve attempts
Digging:
Mathematically, the game is about (scoring points + opponent mistakes) - (opponent scoring + MVB mistakes).
Setting:
Assists are a function of not only sets but hitter conversion. There's low hanging fruit to boost the latter.
Receiving:
No surprises here as overall, the back row performed at an above average level under pressure.
If there were one message the game sent it was the need to score more positive points, always important against quality opponents who give away fewer points.
Embracing Hard
MIKE LEACH ON EMBRACING HARD
— Jamy Bechler (@jamybechler) September 8, 2026
"Nothing is really fun unless it's hard ...
You're pushing yourself. All of a sudden you're making great plays.
You're doing things that you've never done before...
Never hope that it's easy."
~ via @WSUCougarFB and @DrewMaddox pic.twitter.com/mCpHfDgpai
Differentiate winning.
What does that mean?
All winning is not equal. A signature win over a high quality opponent "feels different."
Don't strive to win at all times.
What does that mean?
In a relationship, the need to win all the time degrades the relationship. How did our need to win affect the other person in the relationship?
Don't feel compelled to win a conversation.
The last word might become literally the last word. Think of the other.
Honor rationality. Think about the Four Agreements. The first is "Be impeccable with your word" - to others and to ourselves. Saying, "You're wrong" fails compared with, "I am feeling sad about this."
Judge less. Think about the "Fundamental Attribution Error." That means we tend to judge actions by different standards. We judge ourselves by intent and others' actions imposing "character." For example, "I was late because of the traffic. She was late because she didn't care about the meeting."
How did we make the other person feel? Reflect (the noblest way) on the "Firefighter" video. On a team, "We have to do this together" because one person cannot put out the fire.
Years ago we lost a middle school game. Lenore Ivers, one of our top players, apologized to the team. "I lost the game." Bella Federico put her arm around her and said, "We win as a team and we lose as a team." That's what I remember most about that season.
Lagniappe. "The first robin doesn't make a spring."
Don't mistake a data point for a trend.
Don't let one performance become an identity.
New evidence should change your estimate, not erase your history.
Great Artists Steal
"Good artists borrow; great artists steal." - Picasso
Everyone reveals signs. Learning how to win demands "unrequired work" and self-examination including both giving yourself grace and critical editing.
The best players I coached (Cecilia Kay, Sam Dewey) informed similarities:
- Tireless workers
- Students of the game (video study)
- In their notebooks learning
- Self-care
- Relentless competitors
Steal from them.
Results Are Feedback - Random Thoughts on Game One
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
Student-athletes attend school to learn. Learn to organize and to invest your time, to study, retain information that you have to know, and how to think better - conventionally and unconventionally - and to present your thoughts.
Tests are one metric that provide feedback on both your process and the teacher.
Games are like that, too. Teams and individuals find out what worked, what didn't, and what improvements are needed.
Former Celtics Assistant Kevin Eastman recommended four 'changes' when feedback is available:
- Do it better.
- Do it harder.
- Change personnel.
- "$*%& it ain't working."
Coach Scott Celli and his staff will review game video to study what happened during the "Got to have it" moments. They'll suggest changes, not wholesale revisions.
Some themes recur:
Maintain aggressiveness every point. "Play harder for longer." Some players have a knack for superior focus.
Block better. Read it, get to the block better, press the block, and stiffen the block. Some of the blocks were soft, some late. There could be other adjustments coming.
Gia told Sadie Jaggers years ago, "Focus on making a good pass not a perfect one." The passing will improve. Sadie Smith put on a lot of steps yesterday.
Improve hitting decisions. Vision. Decision. Execution. Hitting decisions improved during the match.
A lot of good things happened. "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater." A lot of players played as though their 'careers' depended on it.
MVB doesn't traffic in excuses. Get back on the horse.
Lagniappe. A coach's job is to tell you what you need to hear when you need to hear it. That may be "opposite the moment."
This is so freaking good
— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) September 6, 2026
Never heard it put like this
“My job is to be opposite the moment” pic.twitter.com/a5IWqXazB7
Tuesday, September 08, 2026
The Frog Problem*
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
*Adapted from my basketball blog
In volleyball, the truth shows up faster. There’s no hiding and every possession is a point. Every touch matters.
Which translates: You don’t need a long evaluation period to see who helps you win.
The Illusion of Skill
In warm-ups, a lot of players look like “players.”
-
clean arm swing
-
good size
-
smooth passing in partner drills
They pass the eye test. But volleyball is not a warm-up sport. It’s a decision and discipline sport under pressure.
The Real Game: Error Management
In basketball, I preach, “Turnovers kill dreams.”
In volleyball: Unforced errors kill sets.
The missed serve. The overpass. The late block read. Ball watching. They are patterns.
The Frog Problem
Every roster has them. Players who hit hard… but out of bounds. Who pass… but not when it matters. Who can block… but are late to the spot.
And volleyball rewards stability and consistency.
The First Filter: Can You Be Neutral?
Before a player can be great, she must be non-destructive. Can she serve in consistently, keep the ball in play under pressure, make the early and correct read?
Because in volleyball: A neutral touch is often a winning touch.
The Second Filter: Can You Be Repeated?
One good swing isn't enough. One great pass isn't. The question is: can you do it again, and again, and again? Consistency is not a trait. It’s a habit.
The Princess in Volleyball
The best players don’t always look like the best players.
They look like: the passer who delivers a good or better every time, the middle who closes the block on time, every time, and the setter who gives hitters predictable tempo.
They simplify the game and add value.
Blocking: The Ultimate Truth Teller
Blocking exposes everything: focus, discipline, reading the game.
A great athlete who doesn’t read hitters is a frog. A slightly less athletic player who sees the set early, closes hands over the net, and takes away the angle, she's the princess.
Because: blocking is less about jumping than about timing and decision-making.
Creeping Commitment
Trust is earned in layers. First time, can you execute your assignment? Next can you do it under pressure? Late set, can you do it when it matters?
Lineups should evolve the same way.
The Hidden Advantage
Teams that win consistently don’t just have talent.
They have fewer unforced errors, more predictable execution, players who make the right play.
Over time, that differentiates. Relentlessly.
Final Thought
You don’t need six stars. You need six you can trust. Because in volleyball: the team that makes the fewest mistakes, and repeats the right habits, wins.
Most players are frogs. That’s not an indictment. Evaluate honestly and reward consistency. Discover the ones who steady the game. And those are the ones who win it. The princesses leave a mark.
Lagniappe. Hitting your target.
Game 1: Reading 3 Melrose 0
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
Melrose traveled to Reading, one of the preseason ML12 favorites and came away on the short end of a 24-26, 23-25, 24-26 defeat.
Coach Scott Celli noted that he was "pleased but not satisfied."
Reading had solid hitting power and good defense and maintained credibility from its preseason #19 ranking.
Confucius has been credited with the following:
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is bitterest.”
Chalk today's match up to experience.
Melrose had its chances and couldn't make enough plays down the stretch to earn a set win.
Melrose did a lot of good things - mostly maintaining aggressiveness, played solid defense, and largely served well.
Three up
Adriana Santoriello played solid volleyball from an all-six status as she filled her usual outside slot and defended well.
Sadie Smith had a challenging day running down serve receives against dynamic Reading serves. She delivered a trio of kills off of second ball attacks.
Maggie Shoemaker, a senior, came in during the third set and served well and gave a good accounting for herself.
Melrose played highly competitive volleyball against a top ML team. I'm not a big fan of "good loss" but that's a reasonable facsimile.
Melrose Notes:
Amelie Johnson had a starting RS position with Ella Friedlaender recovering from illness. With the score 23-24 in the third, Amelie delivered a big kill to send the set to extra points.
Lorena Contin got her first varsity start as a middle. The sophomore comes from the same group that went to the Indianapolis Volleyball Nationals.
Melrose traveled well, including some alumni parents such as Ryan Wenzel (Sabine) and Gary and Leah Fowke (Leah).
Melrose has several players recovering from injury or illness in addition to Ella - Alisa Dautovic and Leila Kiggundu.
Melrose returns to play on Thursday with a road match at Burlington.
Pregame Analysis
You will always remember your first varsity game and the first game of a season, especially a league game.
Peak experience, end experience, and emotional experience shape memory.
The sophomores will remember the improbable comeback at Belmont last year. What I remember most is Adriana, Alisa, and Danni giggling in the back row between sets. Compete with joy.
Reading's Hawkes Field House leaves more basketball than volleyball memories for me. Melrose volleyball played Reading at a different venue when my daughters played. The intensity was high and the ceilings low.
MVB-Reading contests are always competitive. I expect nothing less today.
Summary: (from "Mad River" by John Sandford)
"Pretty good job on the press conference. Sincere yet uninformative."
Lagniappe. Nothing even remotely new re: Melrose-Reading volleyball.
Libero magic from J-Mac
Monday, September 07, 2026
Opening Day - What Makes a Team Perfect?
All opinions in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
Here's a rhetorical question, "What makes a team perfect?" I've never played on one and never came close to coaching one. The closest a team I coached came to perfect was a close loss against a far superior team.
Perfection
It wasn't about the scoreboard.
It wasn't about the minutes.
It wasn't about the coaching.
It was about the quality of the effort, the sacrifice, the grit and the teamwork that the girls showed.
Telling a Story
Each day gives everyone a chance to tell their story.
We don't control all the plot, or the characters, or the dialogue.
But we control a lot - how we prepare, how we bring energy, and how we share the stage.
Make no mistake; winning is wonderful. But for 12-14 year-olds, it can't be everything. That’s not you.
The Volleyball Experience
Why is coming together as a team so tough?
It's hard to bring a group together with individual agendas.
It's hard for the girls to see the "experience of team."
And it's up to us as coaches to be faithful to that story.
Lagniappe. Opening Day. Savor the memory.
Not Volleyball, Just Truth
View on Threads
Give the game what it needs. Sometimes, you won't have every club in the bag - your serve is a bit off, your passing is at 80 percent instead of 90, or your sets are tight. It happens.
You have to give the game what you have - enthusiasm, communication, awareness, and the parts of your game that are working.
Keep your head up. Stay fully engaged. Energize. Have the character to impact the game because you can.
Lagniappe. Sometimes doing well starts with stopping the unhelpful.
Major cheat code for life: Every pattern in your life repeats until you learn the lesson. The moment you choose differently, the loop ends and growth begins.
— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) September 4, 2026
Earning Time
Close the loop. Find ways to show that you "heard and understand." That earns trust.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski reminded players, "Next play." In the Navy, "Aye aye, Sir" means I understand and am "on it."
Every player on the roster has the capacity to impact teammates and to impact winning. Trust is the avenue that you must navigate.
The Times They Are a-Changing
Life has changed a lot. But some things never change.
This LinkedIn post tells a story about Mike Leach. He wasn't a perfect coach, but that's not the point.
"The rich kid can waste the head start or build on it.
The poor kid can drown in the deficit or weaponize it."
If you want to become the best student or the best student-athlete you can be, you have only one choice. "Outwork everyone in the room."
Lagniappe. Volleyball dance battles have become a rage. It's about the skills.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Be a "This Works" and Why" Guy*
*Adapted from my basketball blog.
"We are drunk on our own ideas." - Rolf Dobelli in The Art of Thinking Clearly
Dobelli informs the NIH principle - not invented here. Most of us value our own ideas, simply because they are ours.
Coach Ellis Lane told me about a coach who came to him with a "new" offense. The coach said, "I understand it perfectly." Coach Lane said, "There's a problem. Your players won't." Even good ideas need broad understanding and eventual adoption to matter.
Best-selling author Adam Grant tells a story about being offered an idea to invest in. The Penn students didn't have a website or what he considered a viable business plan. Their names? Warby and Parker.
Basketball lives in the public domain...everything is out there. As a writer, I wear a different hat, seeking ideas to steal, to understand, and to expand upon.
Find "timeless" ideas and share them widely. Coaching is communication and relationships. Here are ten:
Develop a "learning" culture.
"Every day is player development day." Good players make smart coaches.
"Be easy to play with and hard to play against."
"Do well what you do a lot."
Develop teams that play 'harder for longer'.
Intangibles like toughness and resilience travel.
Whatever your offense, have "hard-to-defend" elements - e.g. spacing and separation, pick-and-roll, hard cutting with on-time, on-target passing, simple and complex screening (e.g. screen-the-screener, Iverson action, Spain PnR).
Have a simple philosophy. I used TIA - "Teamwork, Improvement, Accountability."
Don't become beholden to or ignore analytics.
Stubbornness is sticking with a bad plan or no plan.
Firefights
Urgency. Play with urgency.
From Mike Reiss:
Vrabel showed the team boxing trainer Teddy Atlas' "We are firemen" corner speech to amplify the identity he hopes to create. There were also clips of Vrabel calling out Brown and defensive tackle Milton Williams, showing that he holds some of the team's best players accountable in front of everyone.
The Atlas speech hit home with defensive tackle Leonard Taylor III.
"It's about staying laser focused to put out the fire," he said. "It's going into this week with a mindset that we need everybody -- you can't put out the fire with just one person."
Team sports isn't illusory. It's shared vision, mission, and execution to do what is necessary. There is never a shortage of metaphor.
The back row relies on the front to get "hands on" balls. The attackers need coverage. The setter needs actionable passes to do her job.
"You can't put out the fire with just one person."
Here's the real deal with competitive sports:
Toughness isn't proving how much punishment you can endure.
Toughness is maintaining the discipline to do what gives you the best chance to win.
Rankings and Polls
Preseason polls are for entertainment purposes. They don't decide games, lineups, or postseason seedings.
Last season MVB was 13-8 and graduated a Division I recruit, Sabine Wenzel, who has helped her new team to a 5-1 start.
MVB has a challenging schedule that will afford it a chance to prove itself against a tough early schedule and excellent non-league competition. Many of those names are showing up on the preseason stories...some for excellent reasons.
MassHSVB.com rankings usually appear on Sundays and their preseason outlook is up.
Saturday, September 05, 2026
"You Know What I Like About You Guys?"
Coach Ellis Lane used to ask us from time to time, "You know what I like about you guys?" To which we would answer as one, "Nothing."
Coach was demanding but not demeaning. His words stuck with us:
"Sacrifice."
"I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied."
"On the line." (Time to run.)
Competitors want to be coached. They want to improve, to excel, to become their best. That comes with no guarantees. Choose to always do your best because anything less is not enough.
Lagniappe 2. "Who are those guys?" Another Coach Ellis Lane saying...going into the season, our team was unranked. Going into the postseason, it was still unranked. "Prove them wrong."
"Surround Yourself with Great People" - Coach Mike Krzyzewski
“Over the years having been around many great leaders, coaches, and world-class athletes, they all had one thing in common: They made sure they had the right people around them.”
— Allistair McCaw (@AllistairMcCaw) September 2, 2026
— Chapter 8#ConsistentExcellence
📕 🔗 https://t.co/YpGfca0TmO pic.twitter.com/YJLEFkx8hQ
Having supportive family and exceptional coaching creates 'sustainable competitive advantage'.
Having friends and teammates with character and competence adds additional leverage.
"Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence" and Mr. Rogers' "Look for the helpers."
You may know some of these sayings:
"You lie down with dogs and you get fleas."
"Birds of a feather flock together."
"It's hard to soar like an eagle if you hang with turkeys."
Find people who are invested in your success.
Maintain Your Volleyball Profile
A high-academic D3 Coach told us this:
— D3Direct (@D3Direct) September 4, 2026
“As soon as I get a recruit's name I go to Twitter”
Their goal?
Get a quick sense of the player's fit for their program, aka if they are "recruitable"
Best Case: The recruit has all key info listed in their profile, it is up to date &…
Some athletes want to continue playing in college. This coach suggests keeping your athletic profile up to date.
Assess your "fit" for a specific program, realizing that your education comes first and if you put athletics first (before fit), it often ends badly for many different reasons.
Keep high academic standards to give yourself the best chance to succeed long term. MVB has always had many elite student-athletes because "how you do anything is how you do everything."
Mental Toughness Is a Superpower
CARE.
C - concentrate (focus)
A - anticipate (read the play)
R - react (get there)
E - execute (make the play)
Theory is about studying and practice. In "Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect," Bob Rotella says that games are not the time to be thinking about your fundamentals. Have your shot planned. Take the club out of the bag. Address the ball and take your best shot.
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