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. 

Inferred Principles

Watching Melrose volleyball for almost twenty years informs core themes and principles. This list is incomplete. 

Culture. Nicole Trudeau called Melrose a Legacy Program. Coach Scott Celli, the players, and supportive families established a Culture of Excellence where high performance and winning are the expectation. 

Participation is merit-based. No seniority system determines opportunity. Yes, the most successful teams thrived on experience. But underclassmen regularly force their way onto the court through skill and will. The players performing best will get on the court next season, regardless of their play this season. A former Patriot practice squad player remarked that players work because they know Coach Belichick only cares about performance, not draft status or salary. 

Analytics reflect performance. Coaches are a lot like Santa Claus. They know who's been naughty and who's been nice. Coach Celli tracks everything. As Billy Beane said in Moneyball, "if he's such a good hitter, why doesn't he hit better?" 

Leadership. Leadership is earned not bestowed. Victoria Crovo demonstrated skill, toughness, competitive fire, and leadership on the court during her four years. She received a leadership position early in her career, because her presence demanded it. 

Growth. Melrose volleyball fosters competition. Reserve players have more skills than teams from the early and mid 2000s. Some players with limited playing time would have played a lot a decade ago. Maintain your growth mindset. 

Coaches look for skill, size, athleticism, toughness, resilience, attitude, commitment, discipline, effort, and more. Those principles never change. Winning is supposed to be hard. That's what makes it meaningful. 

Melrose - Lynnfield Photoessay

Images courtesy of Steve Karampalas. Click to enlarge.