Corporate Memory, Projection, and More

An important part of coaching is 'projection', looking ahead to see the future arc of a young player.

See the future. The fifth grader might have exceptional coordination, "something in the way she moves," that encourages the coach to invest in her future. She's the girl who has it.

Coach Scott Celli knew that Rachel Johnson had instinctive play. Study her video. She doesn't "whale away" at the ball, but uses craft of ball placement and gets on top of the ball for many 'angled' kills to seams and corners. Rachel was one of the underrated players in MVB history. 

Use analogy. Recently, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla called Derrick White a "Swiss army knife," an analogy to the multitool with many applications. An MVB player who comes to mind was Jen Cain who later starred at Merrimack. Cain could hit, serve, block, and defend at a high level. These highlights display her versatility.   

One young MVBer in particular reminds me of Cain. MVB fans can only hope. 

The MVB player not mentioned enough is Sabine Wenzel, who is already in the top 10 in career kills with 498 and has two seasons with over 200 kills. Why is that? With her size, strength, and athleticism, it's easy to take her accomplishments for granted. That's 'silly season'. One observer said, "she's Batgirl and we hope for Wonder Woman." 

Wikipedia describes corporate memory as "accumulated body of data, information, and knowledge created in the course of an organization's existence." Coach Scott Celli corners the institutional memory market and the blog shares parts including flawed perspective. 

Deep playoff runs require talent, health, and luck. Sectional champions have a strong setter (the quarterback), three dynamic hitters (always a challenge), blocking to contain the pin hitters, and a steady if not necessarily spectacular back row. That's the challenge. 

Lagniappe. Jump setting has advantages, although what is most important is execution over style.