Get After It - A Top Skill to Bring Daily

keep showing up. pic.twitter.com/IqUqoSBIxB

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) March 3, 2026

Nobody can be their best if they only put in the work when they feel like it.  

How Are You Going to Coach Your Team?

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

Steve Kerr Coaching Gold🥇

“How are you going to coach your team?”

The #1 job of a coach is to create and build culture.
Culture is:

1. What you allow
2. What you emphasize
3. Every Day!

Culture Wins!pic.twitter.com/iYLURXeZFH

— Greg Berge (@GregBerge) March 4, 2026

My opinion doesn't matter. Outsiders don't matter. Years ago, I had a chance to talk briefly with Coach Ed Beattie who led Winnacunnet to seven state basketball titles. Most impressive? He said, "The deal is between the players and me."

He meant that what matters most is "in house." You play for each other - not for a community, a school, or your family. Beattie acknowledged that New Hampshire allowed for coaching outside the season, which creates a different dynamic. 

In the video, Kerr emphasizes, "protect the team." What coaches and players do outside the practice facility and games matters. "Represent." 

Sport and life distill to "character and competence." Because of the intensity of competition in both sport and life, it's hard to be "low character, high competence." 

Here's Chat GPT Plus (AI) enhancement:

Character vs Competence Matrix

	High Competence	Low Competence
High Character	High Character / High Competence Reliable leaders who elevate teams. Examples often cited: • Tim Duncan • Drew Brees • Maya Moore	High Character / Low Competence Excellent teammates who work hard but may lack elite ability. Examples might include: • End-of-bench players known for culture and leadership • Walk-ons who become team captains despite limited playing time
Low Character	Low Character / High Competence Talented players whose behavior damages teams. Examples often debated: • Antonio Brown • Kyrie Irving (sometimes cited due to team disruption debates)	Low Character / Low Competence Players who neither help performance nor culture. Examples would include: • Fringe professional athletes later convicted of serious crimes • Players removed from teams for disciplinary issues

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Leadership Interpretation (How Coaches Think About It)

Coaches generally handle each quadrant differently.

High Character / High Competence

Build the program around them.

These athletes:

• set standards

• model behavior

• influence teammates

They become culture carriers.

---

High Competence / Low Character

Short-term temptation, long-term risk.

Teams sometimes tolerate these players because of talent, but they can:

• fracture locker rooms

• undermine accountability

• destabilize leadership hierarchy

Many championship coaches eventually remove them.

---

High Character / Low Competence

Culture builders.

These players often become:

• captains

• glue guys

• future coaches

They raise practice quality and team cohesion.

---

Low Character / Low Competence

Easy decision.

These players rarely last long in strong programs.

As the saying goes:

“If someone hurts both the culture and the scoreboard, the decision makes itself.”

---

A Simple Coaching Rule

Many successful coaches quietly follow this principle:

Category	Coaching Action
High Character + High Competence	Build around
High Competence + Low Character	Manage carefully
High Character + Low Competence	Develop and value
Low Character + Low Competence	Remove

---

A Line That Fits Your Coaching Philosophy

You could summarize the matrix for athletes this way:

Talent may win games, but character determines how many you can win together.

Talent wins games, but character determines how many you can win together.

Non-League Schedule Complete

MVB non-league competition will vary across leagues, geography, and divisions. This supplements the ML12 (11 apiece) and ML12 seeding which will match teams with similar records.

Melrose had a 2025 power ranking in Division 2 of 1.99

The non-league opposition with power rankings (2025)

Marblehead 2.95

Methuen - 3.10

Duxbury - 4.36

Ipswich - (0.52)

Arlington Catholic - 1.83

Newburyport - 2.49

Lynn Classical  - 2.14

This presents the most geographically diverse schedule since the days of the North Shore League which blended the small number of Middlesex League teams with opponents such as Lynnfield and North Reading.

Lagniappe. Get blocked less. 

Make a Masterpiece Today

Making progress takes a sense of humility. You must be humble enough to believe that you can constantly improve and that you never arrive.

It takes intentionality to move forward. You cannot drift to a desired destination. You must intentionally move forward with your focus on… pic.twitter.com/lytSIi2Xyg

— Logan Simmons (@CoachLSimmons) March 2, 2026

Bring your best focus, effort, and energy today. That's the way to honor the support and sacrifices your family makes.  

What Don't You See?

Our imagination helps us answer the question, "What don't you see?" What could make you an impactful player? 

When watching a sport, ask more than "What am I seeing?" Ask, "What am I not seeing?"

In basketball, that includes:

• Defensive pressure on the ball
• Dominant defensive rebounding
• Pick-and-roll offense/defense
• Effective spacing
• ROB shots (in range, open, on balance)

What absences "appear" in volleyball? 

• The "identifiable" weakness (the offensive/defensive hole)
• Communication ("absence of evidence not equal to evidence of absence")
• Early reading of plays ("step late defense")
• "Enough" - not enough blocking, not enough aces
• Effective coverage during attacks

Make absence equal problem solving

Closing the Loop

Solutions will always be partial. Nobody can remove the opponent from the equation. Opponents get a 'say'. In the military, the expression is, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." Solutions must emerge during games because "chaos challenge" is part of the game. 

Recognizing what isn't there 

Sometimes there's not "Enough."

Not enough blocking touches. Not enough aces. Not enough aggressive swings in transition.

Teams sometimes lose not because they are terrible - but because they are slightly insufficient. Close matches have little margin for error. 

The stat sheet tells you what happened. It does not tell you what should have happened.

Final arguments

So the next time you watch a match - ours or anyone’s, ask two questions:

"What am I seeing?" And, "What am I not seeing?" Championships often hide in the invisible.

Lagniappe. An unavoidable truth, exceptional players become exceptional athletes. 

Use this 3-tier jump circuit to improve your vertical ⬇️

a) Pogo Jumps
b) Box Jump
c) DB Squat Jumps

3-4 sets per exercise

Start with 50 reps & accumulate volume over time pic.twitter.com/mrgJ0ex5n6

— Keith Ferrara (@keithjferrara) March 1, 2026

Lagniappe 2. Excellence requires that you see what isn't there.  

Process Makes Progress

View on Threads

 Process makes progress. 

Have a level of gratitude and appreciation...

"We have to wake up and do it again tomorrow..."

Many players can have a good game and some even an exceptional game. Remind yourself of the ACHIEVEMENT EQUATION. 

ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME 

Do it again tomorrow...

Improve Your Public Speaking

Put the best version of yourself on display every day - at home, at school, and in the community. Excellence starts with wanting to be your best, showing up consistently. 

At school, you share presentations with teachers and your peers. Welcome them as opportunities to demonstrate your preparation, practice, and competence. 

Your audience judges you by substance, content presentation, and your style, how well and how confidently you speak. 

Preparation

Audiences crave not only content, but remember The Big Three:

• Novelty 
• Emotion
• Memorable information

Imagine you shared visiting an ICU with extremely ill patients. In one bed you saw an elderly doctor wearing a hospital gown, attached to a variety of life support devices. On the bedside table, you see a picture of the same man, a little younger, wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, surrounded by his spouse, children, and smiling grandchildren at a family barbecue. It defined contradiction, the joy and vibrance of life and its fragility. You would never forget that experience, seared into your consciousness. Real life and "Just a Photograph" indelibly linked. 

Style

Know your audience. You wouldn't address first graders as you would University representatives during a college interview. 

Show good posture. Keep your hands out of any pockets. Some hand movement may reinforce points. Avoid speaking too slowly or too fast.

Avoid punctuating your speech with "er," "um," "like" or "you know." Better to ask, "am I being clear" if you're uncertain. 

Humor can be helpful as can "emphasis points." In 1986, at a tuberculosis lecture at National Jewish Hospital in Denver, John Sbarbaro began by walking up to the first row (there were maybe 40 of us attendees), and coughing violently over them. "If I had symptomatic active tuberculosis, now you'd all have it." 

Substance 

Statistics can mean a lot in context. Imagine that a defense attorney says, "DNA testing is not infallible" and the prosecution expert says, "The odds that the DNA on the victim are not the defendant's are one in a million." Or that the Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says, "Here's our annual budget. In 1,600 years, that equals that of NASA." 

Be a Storyteller

Tell a compelling story that will move your audience. Remember the SUCCESS acronym, better yet, write it down. 

• S = simple
• U = unexpected
• C = concrete (specific)
• C = credible (believable)
• E = emotional 
• S = stories 

Ralph Labella and I coached an athletic girl who was a fierce competitor with excellent size and strength. We encouraged her to play volleyball in a winning program, where she would play in the playoffs every year. She made the volleyball team as a freshman and was superb in the sectional final. The "V-Rex" is now Dr. Victoria Crovo, a veterinarian. 

Lagniappe. Video tells great stories, too. 

Adversity is Your Companion

View on Threads

Adversity is our companion. Accept that anything worth doing will challenge you. Leave your comfort zone. Never give up. Do hard better. 

Banner Day

Every season ends in tears.

Some are joyful tears, team tangled at midcourt, a dogpile of red and white beneath banners that did not help them win but remind them that others once did.

Some are tears of frustration, mascara and silence in a visiting locker room, the long bus ride home heavy with “almost.”

The match would start in a few hours. More chaos than chess on hardwood maple.

Red and white banners overlook the silent gym, memories of something special. Banners don’t win matches. They reflect sacrifice - early lifts, film sessions, bus rides that smelled of Gatorade and nerves. 

The gym itself sits in that middle ground - neither new enough to be antiseptic, nor old enough to be charming. Green hoses snake rainwater from ceiling seams toward the crow’s nest broadcast booth, as if engineering were an afterthought. Red composite stands, set well back from the court, hold rare wads of Wrigley’s and lollipop stems - artifacts of adolescence.

Gyms are theaters of joy and frustration. MVB postseasons seldom die at the Middle School. Symbolically, a defibrillator hangs nearby.

Team chairs sit opposite the stands, flanking a narrow cutout that leads to small offices. “Benches” are history. Nobody’s a benchwarmer anymore. Acronyms like ROOTS - Royal Order of the Splinter - are relics from another era. Roles exist. Contribution is expected. Identity is earned.

Many Melrose Volleyball players have plied their trade here - soaring above the tape, cooking pancake digs, hitting hard at the pins. They did whatever it took to vanquish opponents and imprint banners with numerals: league, sectional, state.

An area coach once labeled Melrose a “legacy program.” Others were less charitable, calling MVB “simple.”

If simple means collaborative culture, positive coaching, and consistent winning, then simple isn’t so bad.

Volleyball receives too little credit as a thinking person’s sport. Servers blend power, spin, and sector to craft edges. Attackers read seams and block hands in fractions of a second. Defenders rely on short-area quickness and the tiny reaction time of platform angles. A setter calculates tempo and mismatch like a point guard with gravity.

Chaos at speed.

Coach Scott Celli has piloted the program for as long as many can remember. Nothing immunizes a coach from criticism. Once sixteen consecutive league titles. Ten sectional crowns. One state championship. Those help. But banners cannot defuse a parent’s advocacy for minutes, role, or recognition. That advocacy belongs to the ecosystem.

Empty gyms conjure loud memories.

The echo of a clean kill. The hush before match point. The thud of a service error at 23–23.

Precious few players strike the ball with both sound and fury - power married to poise. Volleyball is the only sport where a parent can stand and celebrate a child’s kills with pride and without apology.

Losses bring lessons. No Melrose team has gone undefeated - not even the 2012 champions. There is always film to review. Always a serve to tighten. Always a seam to close.

Strong teams adopt an “anyone, anywhere” mentality. Raising your level means seeking better competition. Records don’t lie. You are what your record says you are.

Harsh New England winters frame the halcyon days of MVB. Snow banks outside. Steam rising from breath in parking lots. Inside, the season will unfolds - practices upon practices, habits layered upon habits.

And then, suddenly, it ends. Every season ends in tears. Because something mattered. Teammates became sisters.

Because banners, for all their limits, reflect something deeper, willingness to give more than was required.

The gym will go silent again. The green hoses keep dripping. The red stands wait patiently.

Until winter breaks.

And chaos returns.

Competitors

Are you a hero or a Warrior? pic.twitter.com/qhksbOT7KX

— Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11) February 22, 2026

In individual sports, it's about you. Golf, singles tennis, individual swimming events..."run your race." 

Team sports differ. The Brits would say, "The sum of the parts..." in the fashion of "...lead a horse..."

Here are a few Anson Dorrance quotes:

"Competition is key to developing players. The only practice environment in which you truly develop a player is a competitive arena."

It is critical for you as a young player to understand that vision and great tactical minds are built on a complete foundation of skill, so that you can problem-solve individually and hurt the other team tactically.  Knowing what to do is easily compromised by being unable to do it.

"One of the wonderful life lessons of athletics is that success itself shouldn’t be the ultimate reward--because there are a lot of people who work incredibly hard and never "make it".  What is important, above all, is being in the arena."

One of the most unfortunate things I see when identifying youth players is the girl who is told over the years how great sh is. By the time she's a high school freshman, she starts to believe it. By her senior year, she's fizzled out. Then there's her counterpart: the girl waiting in the wings who quietly and with determination decides she's going to make something of herself. Invariably, this humble, hardworking girl is the one who becomes the real player. 

"Rara Sunt Cara"*

*All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official product of any City of Melrose Organization. This piece has significant AI contributions. 

"Rare things are dear." The Latin phrase is short. The lesson is not.

In volleyball, the most valuable things are rarely the loudest.

We live in a highlights culture, ESPN top tens. Big swings. Monster blocks. But factors that win consistently - the things that travel in tournament play and hold up in November - are almost always quieter.

They are rare.

I've shared this before. Only eight names show up on the list. 

The Rare Skill

Everyone wants to swing hard. Fewer want to master serve receive.

An outside hitter who can deliver a pass on a tough float serve in the fifth set? Rare.

A middle who closes the block on time instead of chasing stats? Rare.

A libero who communicates early, clearly, and calmly when the gym is loud? Rare.

In recruiting, coaches seek separation. Not “good.” They look for something scarce. Because scarcity change matches. Difference makers are hard to find. Rarer is dearer.

The Rare Habit

Adequate sleep is common knowledge. Film study is available to everyone.
Journaling after matches? Almost extinct. All add value. 

You know this saying, “Every day is player development day.”  Development doesn't inhabit the dramatic moment. It lives in the repeatable one.

A player who stretches without being told.  A player who asks for feedback without defensiveness. nA player who sprints to shag balls when she’s not in the drill.

That athlete becomes valuable not because the behavior is flashy - but because it is scarce.

In economics, scarcity drives price. In sports, scarcity drives trust and trust wins matches.

The Rare Teammate

Talent is distributed widely.

Unselfishness is not.

A teammate who celebrates the assist as much as the kill. A senior who mentors a freshman without insecurity. A captain who is accountable when things go poorly.

Those are rare behaviors.

And they are dear to coaches.

Team-first culture sounds obvious. But ego creeps in quietly. Statistics get compared. Playing time gets monitored. 

Character under pressure? That’s scarce.

Ettore Messina once said, “Character is skill number one.” He understood something essential: skill without character is common. Skill with character is rare. And rare changes programs.

The Rare Decision

In tight matches, outcomes often hinge on restraint.

Not every ball needs to be crushed. Not every error needs a visible reaction.

The rare player can regulate arousal. The rare setter can choose the high-percentage option instead of "hero ball." The rare defender resets after a shank and doesn't let a drop become a river.

Emotional control is invisible — until it isn’t.

The Paradox

The rare qualities in volleyball are not secret. They are neither advanced tactics nor exotic systems. They are ordinary disciplines, repeated -consistency, communication, accountability, effort. They are rare not because of complexity - but because of sustainability.

The ability to maintain competitive character is where separation lives.

A Question for Our Team

If rare is valuable, what do we need it?

Rare in ball control?
Rare in transition defense?
Rare in service pressure?
Rare in composure after errors?

Programs don’t become elite by accident. They become elite by cultivating scarce traits intentionally.

Practice what is uncommon. Because in volleyball - as in life - rare things are dear.

Be rare. Be special. 

Lagniappe. Culture rules. 

Repost: Study the Unicorn

Young players, be inspired by the all-around excellence of "The Unicorn," Gia Vlajkovic. 

The Psychology of the Endowment Effect

"Price is what you pay; value is what you get." 

That which is 'ours', family, sports team, free agent infielder has higher value to us. How do we prove that?

Experimental Proof of Concept

Economist Richard Thaler set up an experiment in a class where half the class was given mugs to sell and the other half asked to "bid" on the mugs. In effect, he set up a market for the mugs. The "owners" set the average price at $5.25 and the buyers thought $2.25 was the fair price. Ownership distorted the price. 

Desperately Seeking Objectivity

• Ownership impacts our value judgments. 
• The player will be 32 when the baseball season starts, with 62 RBI, 18 homers, and a WAR (wins above replacement) of 3.5 A team was willing to pay $35 million annually for five years. Good for Alex Bregman and possibly probably an overpayment for an oft-injured player. That's also Thaler's "winner's curse," overbidding. 
• As they say on Wall Street, "a stock doesn't know you own it." 

Volleyball and Sports Make It Personal

• Nobody has more ownership than a player. It's hard to be clear-eyed about one's talent, minutes, or prospects. 
• Parents have an equally large stake. In addition to parental love, they've sacrificed time and money in development costs
• The "inside view" comes from watching practice regularly. As Ron Howard says, "The director is the keeper of the story" and also has their job on the line. 

Asking people to ignore the Endowment Effect is like asking them to ignore the weather. We're vulnerable to forces beyond our control. 

Lagniappe. Players are not machines. 

#Patriots HC Mike Vrabel on the importance of mental health and the role coaches play:

“I get to see these guys every single morning… I see their faces. So, after a few weeks you know when things [are off]... Don’t just ask somebody how they’re doing. There’s a follow up to… pic.twitter.com/mBAQfFypL9

— Carlos A. Lopez (@LosTalksPats) February 25, 2026

 

Be Easy to Play with and Hard to Play Against

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

"Be easy to play with and hard to play against." What does that mean for volleyball?

The best teammates make the game lighter for everyone else. They reduce friction.

Easy to Play with (top qualities):

• Prioritize teamwork. The team comes first. Always. 
• Communication (ELO - early, loud, often)
• Unselfish. Take the right swing, not the glamorous one. 
• "On the same page" - Everyone knows their responsibilities
• Trust. You believe your teammate will do her job — and she believes you will do yours.

Hard to Play Against (top qualities):

• Talented (technique)
• High volleyball IQ (strategy)
• Aggressive and relentless (mental toughness) 
• Diversified attack (able to score in multiple ways)
• Attention to detail - Let nothing slide. 

Hard teams apply pressure. They serve tough. They transition fast. They don’t gift points. They expose weak rotations. They don’t blink late.

Identity and Performance Arcs

Excellent teams overflow with "competitive character" (your identity statement) and "extreme competence" (your performance statement). Know who you are and what you do. 

Winning teams have not only high end talent but players able to "maintain" focus and performance under the stress of score, situation, and fatigue. 

Crafting Legacy

Exceptional teams are remembered because winning leaves footprints and individuals become more than the sum of their parts. They have the ability to score points ("put the ball down") and deny points ("keep the ball up"). They have "stars" ("every team has a pecking order") and a supporting cast that plays with Anson Dorrance's competitive fury. 

Stars matter. So do the grinders. Legacy is built in that tension.

There's no right answer* but here's a Q&A: 

The greatest MVB player never to win a sectional? Victoria Crovo

The greatest MVB player never to be named All-State? Jen Cain

The greatest MVB player, awarded and underappreciated? Emma Randolph

Most underrated MVB player? Rachel Johnson

Most underrated MVB defender? (tie) Autumn Whelan, Amanda Commito

For example, if a player was named All-State and All-Scholastic by both Boston newspapers, underrated doesn't apply. Underrated means overlooked relative to impact. 

Lagniappe. "Buy in" to the program. 

BUY IN signs:
🏀Eye contact
🏀Good body language
🏀Talking in practice
🏀Echoing instructions
🏀Quick to praise
🏀Enjoying the process
🏀Coachable
🏀Helping up teammates
🏀First to everything
🏀Last to leave

— Daniel Makepeace (@PureIntensityBB) February 25, 2026