Protect Your Standards

Standards exist across many domains for good reasons. What if a driving test administrator passed everyone, regardless of their ability to control the vehicle or recognize traffic signals? What if every surgeon got passed along in training, irrespective of their clinical judgment and surgical technique? 

In most competitive athletics, the standards rise over time. For example, the winning times in track, swimming, and cycling rise. That could relate to the athletes, coaching, training methods, equipment, nutrition, and other ancillary factors (sleep, recovery, sports psychology, etc.).

Performance has many inputs including the age at which competitors begin and the training received. For example, a Russian tennis academy (Spartak) produced more top 20 women's players than all of the US. Its coach and her rigorous training emphasized fundamentals without competitive play for the first THREE YEARS. 

What does any of this have to do with MVB? Over time, the depth of the roster has improved. The "bottom half" (in my opinion) has generally improved as more players started younger with more experience and training. Of course, the same goes for the rest of the Middlesex League and teams across the state. 

Depth helps in numerous ways. It makes the team antifragile, raises internal competition, and challenges the "top half" of the roster. Recognize that the "top half" and "bottom half" are fluid. Sabine Wenzel, All-State in 2025, had one kill her freshman season. 

One of Coach Scott Celli's jobs is 'protecting the standard' of MVB performance. Earning a varsity promotion isn't the same as rising to the standard of performance that succeeds in competition.

Your job as a player is to raise your skill, game understanding, physicality, and resilience to meet the expected standard. There could be a "JV" player last season who starts on varsity in 2026. That's not surprising, but reflects the dynamic growth of both play and maturity of high school athletes. 

Know that meeting the standard earns you minutes, role, and recognition. That has not changed over the past twenty-five years. 

Lagniappe. 

ASK the right questions first:

1. How are we going to creative advantage?
↳ Value creation.
2. How are we going to be unique in the market?
↳ Competitive positioning.
3. How are we going to sustain our advantage?
↳ Viability.

This IS strategy.

Strategy defines the actions. It is never the reverse.