Milestones - 2019

Coach Scott Celli notched his four hundredth Melrose career win. 

Christmas DNA revealed

Paula and Karen Sen (MHS 2006) shared DNA testing as a Christmas reveal. 

Nicole in the News

Nicole Abbott heads to UMASS. 

How Are You Improving Today?

Repetitions make reputations. "I can't get better today, it's snowing." Really?

• Get stronger. Shovel some snow. 
• Jump higher. Where's your jumprope? 
• Study the game. 
• Become mentally tougher. Use mindfulness. 
• Develop your "minute clinic" of self-teaching. 
• Read, read, read, read, read. "There is no ability without eligibility."
• Write. Think and communicate more clearly. 
• Are you spending your time or investing it? 

The Meritocracy of Sport and the Reality of ROOTS

Coach Celli is my friend but he's also a genuinely good guy. No matter how hard he might try, he can only play six players at once. In the NBA, Hall of Fame Coach Chuck Daly said, "every player wants 48 - 48 minutes, 48 shots, 48 million." 

There's not always much difference between the top six or seven players and players 8,9, 10. It might be imperceptible differences in experience, skill, confidence, size, or potential. But it's hard to invest time, emotional energy, and money in a sport and get limited "reward." 

How would I know? I pitched one inning of varsity baseball in two years of walking on to a Division 1 baseball program and threw hundreds of hours of batting practice. In high school basketball, while waiting our 'time' (which need not come), we were the ROOTS - Royal Order of The Splinter (wooden bench). 

There's a natural belief that with experience and age, more playing time will come. That's never a given. Physically gifted and committed young athletes may surpass upperclassmen and earn rotations, roles, and responsibility. Sport is meritocracy. 

Yes, sometimes coaches are monsters, but they're relatively few. I share my thoughts on this on my basketball site. 

When not happy with your role, always address this directly with coaches...in any sport. Ask how you can contribute more to the team and where you need to improve. "Do more to become more; become more to do more." 

Breakup Dinner Images

Bill Heafey and Steve Karampalas share volleyball banquet images. Click to enlarge. 

Randolph Adds More Hardware...Boston Globe All-Scholastic

Emma Randolph adds more hardware to her collection with recognition as a Boston Globe All-Scholastic. 

The senior outside hitter earned team and league MVP honors, All-State selection, Boston Herald All-Scholastic, and team best offensive player...truly a season to remember. 

Banquet Highlights

In addition to captaincy announcements, Coach Celli and staff present awards:

Here are some other highlights:

Top Server-Nicole Abbott
Top Offensive-Emma Randolph
Top Defensive-Nicole Abbott
Unsung Hero-Mary Kate Mahoney
Most Improved-Eva Haralabatos
MVP-Emma Randolph
Coach's Award-Erin Torpey
JV MVP-Ava Burns
JV Most Improved-Gia Vlajkovic
Frosh MVP- Bella Fay

Emma Randolph named Boston Herald All Scholastic

Congratulations to all on another outstanding season!

Breakup Dinner

Melrose celebrated the 2019 season at Rosario’s restaurant.

One of the highlights is the naming of captains.

Your 2020 captains are:
Emily Hudson
Autumn Whelan
Chloe Gentile

Information That You Can Use

Today's basketball blog shares 'soft science' that produces results. It covers servant leadership, gratitude, and coaching philosophy with inputs from Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh, Don Meyer, Robert Greenleaf, Shawn Achor and others. 

Our attitude reprograms brain chemistry (software) and brain structure (hardware). The Achor video on the Happiness Advantage is worth your twelve minutes. 

Become Comfortable with Discomfort

Can't jump? What do you intend to do about it? 

First Principles

Earning a spot and role in the Melrose volleyball program has never been harder. If it were easy, what would be the value? 

What's your plan to improve? Control what you can control. Control your attitude, your choices, and your effort. 

Size

Athleticism

Skill

Sport-specific IQ

Resilience

Toughness

Teamwork

Be great at the things that don't require talent, while developing skill. 

Be positive. Be prepared. Listen. Be a team first player. Know your role. Ask questions when you don't know. Be a student of the game. 

Cross Posted: Leadership Lessons

Thoughts from my basketball blog: 

Leadership lessons come from everywhere, even the South Pole. 

Coaches' Eyes

From Wikipedia, "The second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence starts as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."

The document doesn't refer to athletes. 

Coaches eyes. When your girls are trying out for a school play, a school, a job, a team...they must LEAVE AN IMPRESSION. What do the evaluators see? Here is an excerpt from a recent note to parents: 

1. Size. When I was a junior in college as a walk-on pitcher, saw three freshman pitchers who were all over 6'4" and 220 who could throw the ball through a wall...if they could hit it. That didn't portend well for me. 

2. Athleticism. Some is genetic. Some can be developed. Every elite player works to become bigger, faster, quicker, stronger. 

3. Skill. Where do you stand on the skill continuum? How many 3s did we make yesterday? Wearing mittens, I can show you. We need to work on the shots we intend to take. The inside game (post play) is starting to come back in college.

4. Basketball IQ. CARE - concentration - anticipation - reaction - execution. My job is to help your girls 'see the game'. That's everything from spacing, reading defenders, to getting and preventing individual separation, communication, better ball pressure ("execute the coverage, trust the protection" - the back line defenders), pulling the chair, "lock and trail," and so on. 

5. Toughness. Toughness isn't really teachable. Toughness is getting what needs to be done, on time, and done right - that's everything from chores, religious education, study, finishing homework or your thesis, and getting the stop in crunch time. And it's not just individual, it's the FOXHOLE mentality, who do you want on each side of you and at your back. 

6. Resilience. Your girls succeed when they fight through adversity.

 

7. Emotional intelligence. How does your daughter play with others? I highly recommend Professor Adam Grant's book, "Give and Take." Here's a great summary.

We love our children and it's easy for bias to cloud our vision...endowment effect, framing, recency bias, attribution, confirmation bias and more. Hedge fund manager Todd Harrison reminds us to "never confuse net worth with self-worth." Never confuse 'minutes' with self-worth. 

Coaches Whose Ideas Last

History teaches us about legacy coaches. Here's an older post from my basketball site. 

"Coaches who last put people first." 

Spirit Week

Images courtesy of Steve Karampalas. Click to enlarge.

Melrose Volleyball on Instagram

Melrose volleyball has an Instagram page. Off-season development, especially against better competition builds skills and confidence. "Repetitions make reputations." 

These are just some of the Lady Raiders and their offseasons...

More Images from MGVCA Showcase

Emma Randolph and Coach Celli pick up MGVCA hardware. 

MGVCA Showcase

Emma Randolph and Coach Scott Celli got air time at the Massachusetts Girls Volleyball Coaches Association Showcase. It looks as though this occurred at Westborough. 

Coach Celli picks up some hardware for his 400th career win. 

Photographs via @MGVCA10

Final Results Are In

The state tournament concluded this weekend: 

Division 1: Needham over Winchester, two undefeated teams matched up. 

Division 2: Canton over Danvers, as the Bulldogs broke through. 

Division 3: Frontier wins another championship. The Red Hawks fly again. 

Gordon Ramsay Unplugged

“What would I do if I lost that third (Michelin) star? I’d win it back.” He then adds a couple of expletives in his unplugged MasterClass.

“I’m not going to go crying in the corner.”

Years ago, I heard about a young man with cancer and sent him the book, “Resilience.” Nobody ever won that battle with a book, but he has won that war.

Come back tougher, more skilled, and more determined next season.

Looking Back

Playoff preview via Melrose Free Press with photographs 

Familiar Foes, Finals Set

As often the case, familiar foes frequent the State finals. 

In Division 1, Winchester seeks its first state championship against the Bay State League's Needham. Coach John Freeman's Sachems outlasted perennial power Barnstable 3-2 to earn a date with destiny. 

In Division 2, the Danvers Falcons will face the Canton Bulldogs. Melrose has met each over the years.

And in Division 3, Frontier puts its estimable legacy on the line against Rockland. Melrose traveled to Frontier early this year and topped the Red Hawks 3-0. 

Lady Raider Notes: Coach Scott Celli has been conducting exit interviews and soliciting applications for captaincy for the 2020 season. Melrose loses a lot with seven seniors, but returns plenty of proven players as well. The captaincy process assures high quality leadership each season, including input from candidates, teachers and administrators, and teammates. 

Danger Zone

Simon Sinek shares a concept called "Circle of Safety." We are a social species and inclusion literally meant life or death throughout our evolution during the past 70,000 years. 

We do our best work as a group. 

"Our physiology and our need to cooperate both exist with our survival in mind. We are at our best when we face danger together...when we feel like we belong to the group and trust the people with whom we work, we naturally cooperate to face outside challenges and threats." - Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last 

Coach Celli Earns Another Honor

Congratulations Coach Celli!#MelrosePS https://t.co/mlO3976ECb

— Melrose Athletics (@MHSRedRaiders) November 12, 2019

Emma Randolph Named to MGVCA All-State Team

Outside hitter Emma Randolph added another title to her resume' - Massachusetts Girls Volleyball Coaches Association All-State selection.

Emma set a new Melrose High School record for career kills with 913, eclipsing the great Hannah Brickley. 

Randolph is the fourteenth Lady Raider elected to All-State status. Brickley achieved All-State recognition three times. 

Everyone Can Be Great*

*At things that don't require talent...

Not happy with your role? "Become more to do more; do more to become more." 

Coaching Priorities: MUST NEED WANT

Coaches ask the question, "what does my team need now?" 

Bill Parcells expanded on that with a paper divided into three columns :

MUST NEED WANT. 

Learning is more efficient when we invest time reading what we do not know, not refeeding our core beliefs. 

Massachusetts Division 2: Final Four

More Volleyball Images from Bill Heafey

Bill Heafey shares his volleyball photos. Click to enlarge.