Saturday Double Bonus: Volleyball Character

"Character is job one." 

Former Patriots consultant Mike Lombardi wrote in Gridiron Genius, "Moss displayed another Belichick staple: mental toughness, which the Patriots define as “doing what is best for the team when it might not be best for you.”In New England, Moss was a “program guy”: someone who works hard, is a supportive teammate, and cares deeply about winning. In other words, someone with football character."  

Character and competence. 

Competence reflects skill, volleyball IQ, and physicality. As Kevin Eastman says, "Success leaves footprints." Former Patriots assistant Ernie Adams ("Belichick's Belichick") had a sign on his desk, "Stamp out bad football." 

Character shows up in all the intangibles seen on the court - communication, connection, discipline, effort, sacrifice, and teamwork. 

College basketball coach Shaka Smart kept a sign on his desk - LOVE - because you have to love your teammates and the game.  

How you do anything...

"How you do anything is how you do everything." Excel at home, in the classroom, and in your extracurriculars. 

Commit to the Fourth Agreement - "Always do your best." 

Image created by ChatGPT Plus

Compete 

The court is the coach's laboratory. The entire ecosystem, MVB Culture, is yours. Compete for each other, not with each other. 

Play with force - discipline, effort, and toughness.  

NFL and NCAA champion coach Pete Carroll describes your attitude as "Win Forever." 

Four time Super Bowl winner (coach and GM) Bill Walsh wrote, "The Score Takes Care of Itself." The precursor to that is knowing that "A champion behaves like a champion before being one." 

Volleyball character reveals itself in your identity and performance. Student-athletes are 'billboards' that convey messages to coaches, teammates, and the community.

Lagniappe (AI Assist). Provide context. AI works as a partner, summarizing wide swaths of input across many platforms including the blog. 

 “Play with force” does not mean swing harder at everything. Force is focused power. Serve aggressively. Attack with purpose. Block with penetration. Get your feet to the ball. Play with urgency. 

A ball slammed of bounds is not force; it is inefficient. Force means making the opponent uncomfortable - compromising time and space, creating difficult first contacts, attacking seams, leveraging angles, and turning free balls into pressure.

Teams playing with force create identity. They are early reading plays, loud, connected, and decisive. They anticipate and impose their will on the match. "The strength of the wolf is the pack." 

Force appears in the feet, the voice, the platform, the serve, the block, and the decision. Call the ball early. Set with conviction. Attack with purpose. Cover with urgency. Force means pressure - pressure with the serve, pressure with the attack, pressure with pursuit, pressure with your presence. Force is not frenzy. It is artistry within the dogfight. Force is focused, controlled aggression.

Lagniappe 2. Women being heard series.  

 

 

 

15 Coaching Truths

Every coach develops a philosophy, intentionally habitually. Mine is imperfect and still evolving, but these are the principles I work on. 

1. Coaches are truth tellers.
Our responsibility is to tell players what they need to hear, not simply what they want to hear. Growth begins with honest feedback delivered with respect.

2. Coaches and players succeed together.
A coach depends on the performance of individual players and the team. The notion that a coach wants a player to fail rarely survives even a moment of honest reflection. When players improve, everyone wins.

3. Coaching is a privilege.
Brad Stevens said, "Coaches get more than we give." The opportunity to teach, challenge, and encourage young people is an honor. The greatest rewards often come years later when former players return with gratitude and stories about lessons that lasted.

4. Speak greatness.
There is a profound difference between saying, "You did well, but..." and "You did well, and..." One language closes the conversation. The other builds on success while inviting continued improvement.

5. Correct without discouraging.
John Wooden often placed correction between genuine praise - a "sandwich" of encouragement, instruction, and confidence. Players should leave a conversation believing they can become better.

6. Build with positives.
Research consistently shows that healthy relationships require many more positive interactions than negative ones. Coaching should challenge players, but should also create confidence, hope, and belief.

7. Coach with conviction.
Bob Knight famously observed, "If you listen to the fans in the stands, soon you will be up there sitting next to them." Coaches should listen thoughtfully to others, but decisions must ultimately rest on principle, preparation, and judgment.

8. Coaches do have favorites.
Not favorite people - favorite habits. We naturally value players who arrive early, work hard, compete relentlessly, accept coaching, and place the team first. Those behaviors are available to everyone.

9. Never underestimate encouragement.
Few moments are more satisfying than honestly telling a player, "Good job," "Thank you," or, on rare occasions, "You're one of the best I've ever coached." Authentic praise endures.

10. Trust determines opportunity.
Talent matters, but trust determines who is on the floor when the game matters most. Reliability, discipline, and good decisions earn opportunities.

11. Never be a child's last coach.
Every athlete should leave your program believing that sports enriched their life, regardless of playing time or wins and losses.

12. Accept that criticism is inevitable.
No coach will be universally admired. Leadership requires difficult decisions that cannot satisfy everyone. If you need unconditional approval, coaching is the wrong profession.

13. Remember the Prime Directive.
Parents naturally place the well-being, role, recognition, and playing time of their own child ahead of the needs of the team. Coaches must respectfully acknowledge that reality while remaining committed to what gives the entire team the best chance to succeed.

14. Protect everyone.
When difficult conversations are necessary, have another adult present whenever appropriate. Document important discussions and decisions. Transparency protects players, families, and coaches alike.

15. Ask the hard question.
"What does it feel like to be coached by me?"

Players deserve honesty, accountability, respect, and hope. Coaches should continually seek feedback, reflect on their methods, and strive to become better teachers and better people. 

Coaching is ultimately about relationships. Wins matter. Championships matter. But years later, players rarely remember every score. They remember how sports challenged them, how coaches treated them, and whether their coach cared and helped them improve as a player and person.

Learn every day. Teach what you know. Leave every player better than you found them.

Lagniappe. Overcome adversity. 

Lagniappe 2. 

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A post shared by Coach Liz | Llamas Volleyball Director (@hey.coachliz)

Melrose vs LC, Set One Highlights

Developing your personal highlight reel is part of "sport psychology." Visualization helps encode "winning beliefs."

Not all highlights will turn into points. And in a sport where every possession creates a score, offense attracts highlighters. 

1. Elise tools the block from the middle, a little unusual

2. Dani cooks up a pancake dig, soaring like a juvenile pterodactyl...watch into the next point (point 37) where Alisa delivers a kill from the outside. 

3. Aces often arise from extremes (short, long, sidelines), seams, or attacks on weaker defenders. Sadie's serve almost tickles the endline...continue through the next point where Sabrina's defense into offense informs a "block-kill." 

4. "Gotta have it" points are "Belichickian" turning points. At 22-21, Melrose looks to close out with force. Again, "sport rewards athleticism" as Sabrina uses her vertical and presses the block into a kill. 

Points of emphasis: 

• Notice the defense. 
• Play harder for longer. 
• Play with force. 

State Leaders

State Leaders via Maxpreps.com

Kills

Elise Marchais (26)

Adriana Santoriello (41)

Assists

Sadie Smith (5)

Digs

Anna Burns (17)

Confidence Balances Arrogance and Doubt

Lions don’t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep. #DailyWisdom from @BallisPsych pic.twitter.com/A1uad8I09x

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) September 24, 2026

Confidence balances arrogance and doubt.

"An empty barrel makes the loudest noise" informs that more volume does mean accuracy or correctness. 

A successful season means playing to your capabilities. Teams can play poorly and win or well and lose. Be a worthy opponent. 

In The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis tells a story about Amos Tversky, literally "the smartest guy in the room" - in every room. Tversky is at a dinner party, and Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann (quarks) is pontificating about everything. Tversky pulls him aside saying, "There is nobody in the world as smart as you think you are." 

Humility, empathy, and vulnerability accessorize confidence beautifully.

Lagniappe. Excellence.  

The actual secret to greatness: Pick a thing.Pick a system for your thing.Surround yourself with people who support you doing your thing.Do your thing for a decade (or more).

- Brad Stulberg

Read on Substack

Broadcast News

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

Thanks to MHS-TV Sports for their high quality livestream last evening of the Melrose-Lynn Classical game.

The High-Def (1280) broadcast captures a wide-angle "All-12" view and end zone cameras detail the servers and images of both benches.

The sound quality captured the "playoff atmosphere" as although Classical didn't have a high number of supporters, they brought high volume. 

Sophisticated coaches monitor bench engagement which has never been an issue for MVB.

The regular "instant replay" added high value to the broadcast. Kudos to the camera operators, production, and faculty supervision.

Pros and cons exist for student announcers. While Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy shared INANE BANTER (literally with Supers - superimposed graphics), that's a big ask for students discussing an upcoming chem test. Most students don't have an in-depth understanding of volleyball fundamentals, terms, and rules. 

The broadcast - camerawork, replays, and sound - showed high quality and look forward to more in the future. 

Apologies

"Excellence is not an act, but a habit" is misattributed to Aristotle (I have often made this mistake). Will Durant wrote it in The Story of Philosophy. 

And I owe apologies for deviations from "MVB" to excellence - in speaking, in writing, in critical thinking.

What books and writings influence your thinking and communication? Pause and reflect. 

Study these to improve your communication. 

"On Writing" - Steven King

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

You can write, "She jumped and spiked furiously." Or write, "Sabrina soared above the net and deformed the ball with fury designed to send the intended victim to Valhalla." Either could work. 

King wants powerful verbs not empowering adverbs. Allow the verb to stand on its own merit. Disallow very, really, or truly. Choose "she played very hard" or "No one mistook her ferocity for mediocrity." 

"Bird by Bird" - Anne Lamott

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a sh*tty first draft.”

Write your thoughts down; then edit. Screenwriter David Mamet says that comedians spend their lives "shaving syllables." A story or joke has three parts - beginning, middle, and end. 1) "What was the last thing Washington said to his men before crossing the Delaware?" 2) Pause. 3) "Get in the boat." 

"The Writing Life" - Annie Dillard

"You submit this landscape every year, and every year I put it on the bad stack. Why do you like it so much? The young photographer said, "Because I had to climb a mountain to get it." 

Writing and volleyball share intent. Don't hoard or hold back our best. 

Here's AI generated commentary on "The Writing Life"

Writing is sustained attention. The work is less about waiting for inspiration than about staying with the page long enough to notice what is actually there. Discipline creates the conditions for discovery.

You often have to sacrifice what you love. Dillard’s famous image is essentially: don’t save your best material for later. Use it now. The piece in front of you deserves the strongest sentence, image, or idea you have.

The work develops a life of its own. A draft may resist your original plan. Good writing sometimes requires following where the material leads rather than forcing it into the shape you intended.

Revision is not cosmetic. It is often destructive in the best sense: cutting, rebuilding, abandoning whole sections, and accepting that substantial effort may produce nothing usable. Writing involves waste.

The writer’s life is solitary, uncertain, and demanding—but meaningful. Dillard strips away the romance. Much of writing is sitting alone, failing repeatedly, and continuing anyway. The reward is not comfort; it is the chance to make something precise and alive.

General comments about writing:

Use a creative imagination (overcome the tyranny of the blank page) and a critical imagination to refine our work.

Dan Brown said, "The difference between good writers and bad ones is that good writers know when they're bad." 

Ernest Hemingway shared, "Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."  

Attack your writing with the same intensity and integrity that you sacrifice to sport. You'll see the difference. 

Lagniappe. At a random high school basketball game decades ago, a random guy approached me. "I love how your daughters play, just like boys." As preschoolers, they had rough play with boys before and after school. 

Embrace this theme. 

Stats vs Lynn Classical

Statistical summary 

Kills: Team (40)

Elise with 10,  Adriana and Alisa with 9, and Sabrina with 7

Assists: 

Sadie (29)

Digs:

Dani (13) 

Service points:

Anna (15)

Serve Receive:

Anna (15)

Team Serving percentage (93%) 

Game 7: Melrose 3 Lynn Classical 0

Melrose earned a 25-21, 25-21, 25-18 win at home against the visiting Lynn Classical Rams. The win boosts Melrose to 5-2 with 35 percent of the regular season spent. Classical drops to 5-1.

Melrose didn't have any recent experience against LC and found them to be a worthy appointment with a strong service game and a stubborn defense. 

Classical led 20-19 late in the first set when a service error proved costly. Sadie Smith then delivered an ace. At 22-20 LC took a time out and won their last point. 

Leading 14-13, Anna Burns delivered a perfect pass to Sadie who fed Sabrina who went upstairs for an elevator kill.

At 22-21, Sabrina "Air" McArt delivered a key block kill and then struck again with a kill on the overpass. Alisa Dautovic finished the set with an ace. 

The second stanza started out all Rams, leading 5-1. Melrose got off to another slow start. 

At 2-5, Elise Marchais fired in a thunderous attack from the middle. 

The teams mostly traded points mid-set. 

Sabrina delivered a kill and 14-13 and with Melrose leading 19-18, both teams showed resilience on a long point. LC fended off a couple of Marchais attacks before Alisa finished off the block. 

MVB accelerated off the momentum and won set two 25-21. 

From 4-2, Anna Burns went on an historic service run, delivering a dozen service points. Along the way there were kills from Adriana Santoriello (left side), Amelie Johnson (right side), and Elise in the middle. 

Melrose had a massive lead and got complacent and LC closed to within 24-17. Coach Scott Celli took a time out and Melrose closed out the match. 

Three up:

Elise Marchais had a spectacular game, dominating offensively and defensively in the middle. 

Sadie Smith continued excellent distribution and delivery of passes as the quarterback of the offense. 

Adriana Santoriello got her timing back after injury absence. She showed why she has been a top ML12 option outside. 

Melrose Notes:

Melrose eventually benefited from a diversified attack. When MVB got five hitters in sync - scoring from Elise, Adriana, Sabrina, Alisa, and Amelie they looked like a tough out. 

The back line of Anna, Dani DiGiorgio, Alisa, and Gen Overlan played near flawless volleyball. 

Service was solid with the Burns' run a key to turning the final frame into a blowout. 

Next week Melrose has three games, beginning by hosting Arlington Monday. 

State Leaders

State leaders often fluctuate according to both performance and number of sets played. Maxpreps.com informs the current totals. 

Kills:

Elise Marchais is the current Melrose leader at #42 as Adriana Santoriello was out two games with injury. Elise has position versatility, comfortable both outside and in the middle. 

Assists:

Sadie Smith is #7 having played fewer sets than all leaders above her. She is on track to put up 527 regular season assists this season and has weaponized attacks. She has 18 kills this season, more than all of last year. 

Digs:

Anna Burns is at #16 in digs. She has shown steadiness with improvement over the six games Melrose has played this season. 

Lagniappe. Game seven today, hosting Lynn Classical and their twins. "Play with force."  

Change the World By Being Who You Are

Speeches by women are seen and heard less. We miss a chance to learn from women with experience and wisdom.

Accepting that means accepting less...and you are not less. 

Here's a longer excerpt from Abby Wambach.

   

By being yourselves - at home, school, on the court and in the community, change the world. 

Critical Mass

Many chase achievement. Recall the "Achievement Equation."

Achievement = Performance x Time 

Elevating achievement works best by raising both performance and time. 

1 x 1 = 1

2 x 2 = 4

4 x 3 = 12

Of course, it's not easy to quadruple your performance or to put in three times the work. 

Critical mass usually conjures up ideas of nuclear fusion, creating enough nuclear fuel and energy to initiate a 'chain reaction'. "In physics critical mass is the mass of nuclear material needed to create a nuclear chain reaction, where the by-products of one reaction are used as the inputs for the next, chaining them together in a self-perpetuating fashion." Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models by Weinberg, Gabriel; McCann, Lauren 

Critical mass extends beyond physics to politics (e.g. fascism), to musical trends (e.g. the Beatles), and products (e.g. fax machines or cellphones). 

How does it apply to volleyball or sports? 

Analytics - what to track, does it work, how much impact?

Talent - how much is enough 'critical mass'? 

Strategy - what creates 'sustainable competitive advantage'? Or what 'losses' create subcritical mass? 

Coaching - what coaches have the skill, will, and resources to assemble critical mass? 

Skill set - what combination of serving, attacking, blocking, setting, digging, and passing creates the exceptional player?  

"Too much of a good thing can also be a bad thing." - from Super Thinking

If you tripled your volleyball time investment, it would come at the expense of family, school, and a well-rounded life.

The 'art' of self-development seeks the right blend to achieve critical mass. Along the journey, use "Dot b." Stop, take a breath, and reflect on where your feet are. 

Lagniappe. The 2012 team wasn't extraordinarily tall and wasn't profoundly more athletic than you are. They were more experienced and developed "closers" who finished plays and defenders who kept plays alive. 

I invite your attention to three elements: 

1. Melrose attackers get ON TOP OF the ball. This limits attacks soaring long. 

2. Melrose blockers "press the block" over the net, not just getting hands up. 

3. Melrose attackers leverage geometry with attack angles. 

 

 

 

Standings and Stats Update

ML12 Standings in a bunch after the leaders. 

Statistics from Wilmington Match

Life and sometimes volleyball stats are like a box of chocolates.

You Are Agents of Change

Wake Forest Men's Basketball Coach, Steve Forbes, gives an incredible motivational speech ahead of their upcoming season pic.twitter.com/PAlwo0PlPC

— Dudes Posting Their W’s (@DudespostingWs) September 22, 2026

I'd rather show young women videos of great speeches by women. There's tremendous 'selection bias' toward male media. And videos like this, however true, perpetuate that.  

You are agents of change. Do better. Tomorrow you face the Rams. 

Unadulterated Truths

"At the highest level in the final minutes of any tight game or in finals and playoffs, it’s not the team who makes the biggest plays that prevails, but the one that makes the least errors. Anyone can inflict pain, but those who can endure hardship and tough times best will succeed." 59 Lessons: Working with the World's Greatest Coaches, Athletes, & Special Forces" by Dr. Fergus Connolly

The principal 'edge' of old age is experience. "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." 

The best students aren't always the smartest. They are those who focus, study effectively, manage time, and keep going when others quit.

Notice any similarities with the best athletes? 

Practice

Warm up with the intent to loosen muscles and avoid injury. Practice with intent. Direct every serve with purpose. Read every server, setter, hitter, and ball with the belief that will make you one step faster, one step better. 

Focus

Disallow distractions. Don't be thinking about texting your friends or your Spanish homework. Be present in the moment. Focus is a superpower. 

Study the Game

If you don't have game video to review, ask yourself what you could do better. Maybe it's placing your serve more accurately or intentionally. Maybe it's communicating so "no ball hits the floor." Maybe it's closing the block quicker. Give yourself grace and commit to continual improvement. 

Play Harder for Longer

Canadian basketball coach Dave Smart says that the best teams have the ability to "play harder for longer." Be in superior condition. If that means a few sprints after practice, do it. In basketball there's a drill called 17. You only do this drill when you're completely healthy. Some of you should not even think about it now. 

Sprint sideline to sideline across the width of the court 17 times. The objective is to complete these repetitions within one minute. It's one minute of all-out effort, challenging yourself. Maybe you can't do 17 but can you do 15? Or do the drill for sixty seconds and seek your personal best. The first time will be your best. 

In the fifth set, you will know that you trained harder than your opponent.  

"The best" are frankly, a little bit crazy. To push yourself harder for longer and to do it consistently makes you different. 

Lagniappe. Kaizen 

First, the ChatGPT "McKinsey Slide" (3 second impression)

Then the "long form." 

View on Threads

 

 

 

 

 

Game 6: Melrose 3 Wilmington 0

Melrose swept Wilmington 25-7, 25-11, and 25-13 at the MVMMS to extend its winning streak to three games.

The win raises Melrose's record to 4-2. 

Part of the "A-Team" returned to action with Alisa Dautovic and Adriana Santoriello both saw expanded duty as they return from injuries. 

Milestones were met as Leila Kiggundu and Mia Sasso both made their varsity debuts and recorded kills. Leila missed all of her freshman season and a quarter of this year with injury.

Every Melrose player saw action. 

MVB established its game early with offense from multiple players including Amelie Johnson, Elise Marchais, Sabrina McArt, Adriana, Alisa, and Sadie Smith who unofficially had four kills from the setter position. 

The second set illuminated the skill set of Leila as she served and set giving Sadie some deserved relief. 

Melrose Notes:

The Pixellot camera system is currently not operational, limiting home broadcasting to labor intensive manual camera operation. 

Melrose hosts the unbeaten Lynn Classical Rams Thursday. The Rams currently hold the #3 slot in the Maxpreps.com ranking system in Division three. There is an early start at 5 P.M. 

Interesting games on the ML12 schedule today including Burlington at Wakefield and Woburn at Belmont, so the standings could see Melrose move into the top four. 

Wakefield won the opening set 25-20.

Belmont shut out Woburn 3-0. 

Winchester topped Lexington 3-0. 

A Critical Part of High School Sport Experience

Learning about leadership is an important part of your experience. Understand what leaders do and how. 

• Leaders help people be seen and heard.
• They put people in position to succeed.
• They add sport-specific value and set high ethical standards.
• They provide mastery and structured preparation.
• They make everyone around them better.

Former UNC women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance had players read The Leadership Moment, nine curated stories of extraordinary leadership. It would be excellent summer reading.

One of my favorites was Arlene Blum leading an all-women's expedition to summit Annapurna, one of 14 Nepalese peaks over 8,000 meters. Two women summited and two died trying. Women have the capacity to face the challenges, endure the hardships, achieve greatness, and suffer the same consequences as men.  
  

Creating Advantage

Two things that have always stood out for me when walking in to an organization or team for the first time:

1. Energy never lies - the first person you encounter sets the standard. it’s either attractive or repulsive

2. Attitude — it’s either welcoming or threatening.

— Allistair McCaw (@AllistairMcCaw) September 22, 2026

Ecosystem, the totality of a program's environment, matters. Coach Scott Celli and his staff bring the same energy and positivity today that have been fundamental for three decades. 

In her Hall of Fame induction speech, Sarah McGowan emphasized how welcoming the program was, even for her as a young camper. Upperclassmen never "bigfoot" young players. There has never been a "kiss up" and "kick down" mentality to overcome. 

Does that mean that everyone is happy with their playing time or role? Of course not. Everyone should want to contribute and be prepared to capitalize when the chance comes. 

Navigating Hard Conversations Comes with the Territory*

*Adapted from my basketball blog. All opinions expressed are my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization. 

 

Hard conversations in coaching are the sounds of inevitability. Do better through study, preparation, and attitude. Some of us feel a need to "win" every conversation or negotiation. That leaves negative residue and our conversation partner must therefore "lose." 

Show empathy (work to understand how the other side feels) and seek perspective through more tools. 

Alison Wood Brooks provides the acronym CALM, not without irony.

C - confirmation

A - admit uncertainty (can lower the temperature)

L - learning

M - making it human

The acronym itself embraces preparation and perspective. 

Confirmation

This represents an effort to get on the same page. These are the facts as best as I can tell. Help me by sharing your understanding. Changes in a player's role or playing time often get seen as either threatening, punitive, or personal. 

Admit Uncertainty 

As coaches, we prioritize what is best for the team as our first objective. It's not always clear. The "good soldier" senior doesn't want to hear that the talented sophomore is 'stealing' their spotlight. We could say, "I know this is hard for you to hear, especially with how hard you've worked. Some changes are coming that affect you, and we'll see how that works out for the team." 

These conversations should be well considered, always held with another adult present, and be private to limit potential for shame or embarrassment.  

Learning

We can't know everything. We can work to understand whether other factors lurk in the background - injury, family, academics, bullying, or any of a hundred possibilities. 

Behavior is data, not always explanation. Sometimes an explanation exists, but exploring for it makes everyone involved uncomfortable. 

Make it Human

Coaches practice our art amidst complexity, with incomplete information, and can't separate feelings from the process. Emotion is often uncontrollable (e.g. sadness), but behavior is. We can be frustrated with another person, but we can't punch them in the face. 

With younger players, often the fact-finding avenue has to run through the parents. Let them know that we are on their family's side and ask whether issues exist that we should know about. Nothing guarantees positive reception, but understanding can only arise through mutual participation.

I'd be kidding readers and myself if "perfect conversations" were my standard. Most parents are reluctant to say, "I hate you and your coaching." That doesn't make them wrong. Certain approaches don't work well for everyone. For example, an aggressive style may not work for a less forceful or physical child. Most parents appreciated a holistic approach. Not all.

Sources:

MasterClass, Chris DeVoss (author Never Split the Difference)

MasterClass, Alison Wood Brooks

Lagniappe. Here's an AI take on Voss's likely tack:

1. Label the emotion before arguing the facts.
   “It seems like you’re frustrated.” “It sounds like you feel you haven’t been given a fair chance.” Voss’s point is that naming emotion tends to reduce its intensity. In coaching, that matters before you explain playing time, role, effort, or behavior.
2. Use calibrated questions.
   Instead of “Why aren’t you communicating?” try: “What’s making it hard for you to communicate right now?” Or, “How do you think your current approach is affecting the team?” These invite reflection without surrendering standards.
3. Get to “that’s right,” not “you’re right.”
   “You’re right” can be a conversation-ending concession. “That’s right” means the player feels accurately understood. Summarize her position so well that she recognizes herself in it before you move to your point.
4. Use an accusation audit.
   Say the negative interpretation out loud before the athlete does: “You may think I’ve already made up my mind,” or, “This may feel like I’m singling you out.” That takes some of the sting out of the objection and shows you are not avoiding the uncomfortable part.
5. Don’t confuse empathy with agreement.
   This may be the most important coaching lesson from Voss. Tactical empathy means understanding the player’s perspective, not endorsing it. You can say, “I understand why you’re disappointed,” and still say, “Your role is not changing right now.”

For a coaching blog, I’d probably distill the whole thing to:

Hear first. Label the emotion. Ask better questions. State the standard. Leave dignity intact. 

MVB Entertains Wilmington Today

MVB looks to extend a two-game win streak, hosting the Wilmington Wildcats today.

Melrose hasn't been at full strength yet and Coach Scott Celli will likely have "load management" as an ongoing priority. 

 

Playing "Up" - Craft Your 'Career Trajectory'

Most players rarely think about this. Maybe that's a good thing. Excellence is not about balance. 

As Brad Stevens told my wife Ellen (the rocket scientist) about sports, "It's not rocket science."

Coaches' Player Evaluation

• Performance (competence)
• Projection
• Character (intangibles)

Performance is dynamic. 

The pathway to excellence traverses "kaizen," work toward continual improvement. It's ruthless pursuit toward your asymptote of excellence, your performance ceiling. Teams succeed when they develop enough individuals hungry for team success. 

Projection is hard to measure. 

Two young players especially stood out during 2025 tryouts to me. Both are regulars now. Scott Celli has the ability to recognize "it" when he sees "it." When I asked him once how long it took him to see that a specific player had "it," he said, "five minutes." 

Anson Dorrance about Mia Hamm

Character  

"The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior." Exceptional players have extraordinary character. This allows ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. Finding these 'guys' separates champions. 

Former Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler said about avoiding the 'wrong player', if he goes to Ohio State he might beat you once a year. If he comes here, he can beat you every day. 

Melrose has never had those 'wrong' guys. They still don't. 

Become the metaphorical "lottery pick" or "first rounder" who can play for anybody. Melrose has a bunch of candidates for those labels. Coaches don't make lottery picks or first rounders. Players do via their commitment, discipline, focus, sacrifice, teamwork, and will. They embody "deliberate practice." 

You control your career arc. 

MassHSVB Rankings

MassHSVB published its updated rankings. 

What matters? How you play, the league you play, and whom you play. 

Restated, there's "Halo Effect" as teams can earn recognition for its relative standings to competition. 

Melrose went from off-the-radar to into the top 25, whatever that means. 

"Moving on Up"

You award yourself integrity, work ethic, commitment. You can't award yourself external recognition.

The latest Maxpreps.com D2 rankings:

Here's the reality. You're still in the "Evaluation Phase" of the season. Soon, there's a transition into the "Second Act." The characters embrace the struggle to overcome the obstacles on their destination. Then, there's "The Crescendo" of action to the resolution. You know it when you see it. 

The crescendo happens when all the instruments come into play - in the video at about 11:30 or so.