Take It to the Banquet

Melrose concluded its 2022 season with it annual breakup banquet at the well-appointed Bellevue Country Club. 

Coach Scott Celli reflected on the season as the 'most likable team' which brought him to work and home with "a smile on my face." 

In addition to smiles, the team delivered its sixteenth consecutive Middlesex League title, an undefeated league campaign, and its tenth sectional championship. In a computer-seeded All-State tournament, this is a special achievement.  

In addition to five ML All-stars, the season spawned the Freedom Division MVP, Gia Vlajkovic, also ordained an MAVCA All-State selection. 

The coaches handed out certificates, letters, 'stars and bars', and additional awards.

Freshman - Most Improved Player, Isla

JV - Most Improved Player - Sofia 

JV - Most Valuable Player - Alex 

Varsity Awards: 

Top Server (Percentage of Points Won) - Emma Desmond

Top Offensive Player - Gia Vlajkovic

Top Defender - Emma Desmond 

Most Improved Player - Ruth Breen

Unsung Hero - Anna Shoemaker

Most Valuable Player - Gia Vlajkovic 

Coach’s Award (for Overall Contributions) - Chloe Gentile

Coach Celli described the captaincy and competitive selection process. He emphasized that all decisions are in the best interest of the team, and volunteered that everyone can be a leader.  

Captains for 2023:

Sadie Jaggers

Grace Gentile 

Leah Fowke 

Having watched Melrose volleyball for twenty years, I've seen all Melrose's sectional champions. I think Coach Celli did his best work in navigating the 2022 season, helping the team reach its full potential. They came in with a lot of questions about roles - setting, libero, outside hitter, serving - acing the test. 

Teams have traditions like songs on the bus. Former pitcher Joaquin Andujar said, "They have a word for it in English...youneverknow."

Thanks to the Bellevue staff for serving an excellent event. 

End of Season Celebration

"Tradition never graduates."

Tonight Melrose Volleyball celebrates its players, families, and culture with the annual end-of-season breakup dinner. 

There's always plenty of good food, company, and memories to share. 

Coaches Celli, Schmitt, and Mays review their season and distribute certificates and awards (i.e. Varsity letters, All-Star Recognition, et cetera). 

Graduating seniors often share a few of their thoughts.

Sometimes there is a slide presentation or video recap of the season. 

And the leadership mantle is passed from this year's captains (Chloe Gentile, Gia Vlajkovic, Sadie Jaggers) to next. Coach Celli reviews the attention to detail in captain selection, from application to discussion with school administration leaders. 

It's worth reflecting on 'unseen inputs' that contribute to consistent success.

• The time and treasure sacrifices of players and their families that underlie success.
• The "unseen hours" that coaches contribute planning practice, scouting opponents on video or in person, leading to missed dinners and family activities
• Offseason play, clinics, and travel that separate contenders from champions
• Fundraising that nobody enjoys
• Team reading like Jay Bilas's "Toughness" to build resilience

Lagniappe. This lengthy summary of Sam Walker's The Captain Class discusses the leadership role of the women and men who captained the greatest teams in sport history. It's worth "print and save" status.

Excerpts:

THE SEVEN TRAITS OF ELITE CAPTAINS

1. Extreme doggedness and focus in competition.
2. Aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules.
3. A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows.
4. A low-key, practical, and democratic communication style.
5. Motivates others with passionate nonverbal displays.
6. Strong convictions and the courage to stand apart.
7. Ironclad emotional control.

"In training, the Cubans would raise the nets by eight inches to match the height of the men’s game. They strengthened their legs by leaping one hundred times onto a tall box while holding weights. “They hit harder than some men’s teams,” noted Mike Hebert, a retired American volleyball coach who saw them practice. “Every attempt appeared to have the spiker’s reputation riding on it.”"

Cuban captain Mireya Luis video...watch first at normal speed then at 1/4 speed to break down the runup footwork and swing. She hits down INSIDE the ten foot line to either side.

 

Looking Back

Melrose had many exceptional leaders and players. Here's a look back at an end-of-season picture. 

Kat, K-Mac, and the "V-Rex" 

Quick Five: What Kind of Person, What Kind of Player Do You Want to Be?

Be ready to perform at a high level when called. Gary Washburn explains Blake Griffin's mentality, "Griffin said he has accepted his role in Boston, which is whatever coach Joe Mazzulla asks. There are going to be nights when Griffin contributes to a win and others when he doesn’t leave the bench. He’s at peace with that." 

1. "Always do your best." This is the fourth agreement from "The Four Agreements." It won't always be THE best or our personal best, but it leaves no regrets. 

2. Show up. "90 percent of success is just showing up." One basketball player came to ninety percent of offseason workouts, often alone, often in searing heat. And she worked. She never "cheats the drill." She's been All-Scholastic twice and has a lot of D1 interest. Because she shows up. 

3. Be coachable. "Have the soul of a poet and the hide of an elephant." 

4. You write your narrative. A coach told me of a Melrose volleyball player. "She is ferocious the way she attacks practice." Be a great competitor. 

5. Be a great teammate, like Blake Griffin. Everyone can't be a great player but everyone can be a great teammate. Jane Goodall discussed chimpanzee mothers. They are there fully for the first five years of an offspring's life or until they have additional children. They are affectionate and supportive, but not overly supportive. But if they sense a threat from an overly dominant mother, they rush in and protect their child. Teammates have each other's back. 

20 Day Challenge, Day 19 - Do More Deep Work

To become more, do more. Author Cal Newport coined the term "Deep Work," our best work done in a distraction-free environment.

We have become "addicted to distraction." Quality work demands a distraction-free environment.

Improve as a student and an athlete. How? 

• Set goals.
• Examine the available tools to reach them.
• Choose the top few of those tools. 

What environment could help you become a better student? A distraction-free environment helps, meaning no television and no phone interrupting us with calls or texts. 

Deep work means work not capable of being done by a casual participant. 

- Work in a quiet environment.

- Use the Pomodoro Technique (25 minutes on, 5 minutes off)

- Use spaced repetition (repeated study, not cramming)

- Self-test. What did I just review? What are the key points?

The same principles apply for volleyball training - skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology. 

- Walk through the footwork for serving or attacking. Then practice at a higher pace, game speed. 

- Watch video of elite players, their footwork, swing, platform skills. 

- Become more athletic with strength and conditioning. 

- Devote time to mindful meditation and visualization, like professionals and Olympians 

 

20 Day Challenge, Day 18 - Mentoring

"Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence."

Everyone benefits from coaching. Dr. Atul Gawande, author of The Checklist Manifesto and Being Mortal, hired a surgeon to oversee his technique. Kentucky Coach John Calipari has a Personal Board of Directors, a group of trusted advisors, with whom he meets periodically.

Mentors help us examine our strengths, weakness, and process. We decide how to use that advice through creating better habits and tracking our progress.

Long-term become your own coach. Make lifelong learning a priority to become a "learn-it-all" not a know-it-all.  

• Be specific. Ask how you can improve. 
• Ask better questions. 
• Pay attention to details like footwork for hitting, hand position for blocking and setting. 
• Practice more efficiently by finding workout partners.
• Be a tracker. "Winners are trackers." 

Establish better habits - pick, stick, check. 

• Pick habits that will help you improve skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology
• Stick to them. Find ways to make them easier (e.g. take your gym gear with you)
• Check that you are fulfilling your habits. "Don't miss twice." 

Twenty Day Challenge, Day 17, Self-Management

How do you become successful? Develop systems to manage ourselves, allowing us to lead others.

Education is about changing behaviors. Educate ourselves to increase productivity.

Peter Drucker is the father of modern Executive Training and his book, The Effective Executive is the bible of executive leadership. Examine key points from Drucker to apply to our lives. The sooner we start, the better. Why? 

Remember the achievement equation:

ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME

Because many readers are young, they benefit by extended time to apply better systems. 

Here are Drucker's five critical points:

1. TIME. Use time better. Track your time and reduce time wasting. Time is our most valuable commodity. 

2. EFFICIENCY. Enhance efficiency. Practice more efficiently, which often involves a partner. 

3. STRENGTHS. Press your strengths. As a coach or a player, "do more of what works (strengths) and less of what doesn't (weaknesses)." Melrose didn't score much on backsets or setter dumps. So, they did fewer and won a sectional championship. #TheSimpleGame  That doesn't mean abandoning other skills, but press your strengths. 

An offensive possession includes the initial setup, advantage creation, and advantage exploitation. 

4. PRIORITIES. "Put first things first." That means developing a list of considerations. Former Patriots coach Bill Parcells took a sheet of paper, folded it in threes, and had headings of MUST, NEED, WANT. I had one for basketball. 

As a player, develop your priorities. 

5. DECIDE. Decisions have costs as does inaction. Another Parcells quote is, "Coaches are the most selfish people. We put the players on the field who will make us look good."

As a player, force the coaching staff to get you on the floor with your technique, tactics (game understanding), athleticism, and resilience. 

Summary: Effective Executive

• Use time better
• Become more efficient
• Press your strengths
• Set your priorities
• Make quality decisions

What Defines Success?

Success means different things to different people. I think of success as results approaching the asymptote of potential. 

The 2022 season was wildly successful. 

Cross-posted. 

Twenty Day Challenge, Day 16 - Use Analogies

"An analogy is a figure of speech that creates a comparison by showing how two seemingly different entities are alike, along with illustrating a larger point due to their commonalities."

Inventor Thomas Edison believed the keys to invention success were imagination, persistence, and analogies. 

Imagine linking cooking and volleyball. You're stuck? 

Chef Roland Henin, Thomas Keller's mentor, said that cooks cook to nurture people. Coaches coach to nurture people, to help teams go where they cannot go alone. 

You may have heard that "revenge is a dish best served cold." Proving yourself and your team is more like lobster or the Danish pastry, Kringle. It taste great hot or cold. 

Thomas Keller discussed the 'disciplines of success' during the cooking process. 

Organization. "Organization speaks for itself." You know it when you see it. "It is the difference between failure and success."

Efficiency. Efficiency builds execution. Practice at a higher tempo. Use that most valuable resource...time. 

Critical feedback. Understand how our input improves others' output. "It's the critical feedback that we learn from the most." He focuses on the restaurant customer who is not happy...how can we improve their experience? Growth... understanding... self-analysis. 

Repetition. "Repetition makes reputations." John Wooden marveled at how Bill Walton never tired of repeating the same footwork and moves that produced greatness. "Make gnocchi every Sunday...you'll have it in the freezer for convenience meals." Make the gnocchi. 

Rituals. Great habits build consistent performance. As Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." We make our habits and our habits make us. What habits make us?  

Teamwork. "Without me being part of that team, being efficient, they couldn't do their job (server, chef, bartender)." Unless the twelfth player on the team is punctual, committed, challenging the starter, then the team suffers. Volleyball is a collective experience. Do you play on the team or for the team? 

All cooking occurs at the combination of time and temperature. Do you want to be an exceptional player? You put in both the time and the intensity needed to excel. 

Use "tools of refinement." In cooking that includes:

In volleyball that includes numerous types of practice equipment. 

Coaching is the ultimate refinement tool, along with practice. "Repetitions make reputations." 

Analogies Summary:

• Analogies help growth and development.
• Coaches nurture. 
• Some dishes taste great hot or cold.
• Study and understand disciplines of success.
• Use tools or refinement to sharpen your game. 

Anything Is Possible: Keep the Ball Up

WHAT A RALLY 😱 @UHCougarVB pic.twitter.com/OhwuGCpWCz

— ESPN (@espn) December 3, 2022

 

Twenty Day Challenge, Day 15 - Become a Storyteller, Write a Great Narrative

People are storytelling animals. Humans passed down knowledge, language, culture, values, and more via stories.

Consider Aesop's Fables. The story of the Tortoise and the Hare informs that "slow and steady wins the race." Consistency defeats flash.

How do we develop better stories? Chip and Dan Heath share a mnemonic in "Made to Stick" - SUCCES.

S - simple

U - unexpected

C - concrete (specific)

C - credible

E - emotional

S - story

She was athletic, tall, and not highly skilled as a freshman, playing on the Freshman team in 2009. She kept improving, especially as a blocker. She was also a great person at home and school, and a great teammate. She made the leap to the varsity in 2010, playing 41 sets as part of a Sectional Championship team. By the time she was a senior she was fourth in kills on the team and part of the greatest blocking duo in team history. 

  Senior Night, 2012

Her story shows how a player made the leap from the Freshman team to State Champion and more. She played volleyball and basketball in college and is the Wakefield High School Coach - Kayla Wyland (15). 

Learn and develop stories and write a great narrative for yourself. 

You don't have to play varsity volleyball as a freshman to impact winning and become a champion. 

Improvement Tips from the Masters

Improvement is about commitment - in school, sport, or other activities. 

Here are some tips from MasterClass experts on success:

1. "Bring your best self." - Samuel L. Jackson

2. What does it take to be successful? 1) Be on time. 2) Don't be a jerk. - Helen Mirren

3. "Find the best version of the truth." - Investigative journalist Bob Woodward  

4. "The film is made in the editing room." - Director Ron Howard

5. Success "takes the soul of a poet and the skin of an elephant." (Be able to withstand criticism/coaching) - Director Mira Nair

6. Become more athletic. "I can throw a football like an NFL quarterback." - Serena Williams

7. "Read, read, read, read, read." - Director Werner Herzog 

He requires all of his film students to read The Peregrine. “Cold air rises from the ground as the sun goes down.  The eye-burning clarity of the light intensifies. The southern rim of the sky glows to a deeper blue, to pale violet, to purple, then thins to grey.  Slowly the wind falls, and the still air begins to freeze.  The solid eastern ridge is black; it has a bloom on it like the dust on the skin of a grape.  The west flares briefly.  The long, cold amber of the afterglow casts clear black lunar shadows.  There is an animal mystery in the light that sets upon the fields like a frozen muscle that will flex and wake at sunrise.”

― J.A. Baker, The Peregrine

8. Every story, joke, adventure has "three parts - the beginning, the middle, and the end." - David Mamet 

- beginning "Before crossing the Delaware, what was the last thing George Washington told his men?"

- middle (Pause)

- end "Get in the boat." 

The volleyball season is like that. There's the offseason player development, the regular season, and the postseason. 

9. "Kill your darlings." - David Mamet  Ruthlessly edit the unnecessary. Simplify your game. A jump serve can be great. But a simple serve like Leah Fowke's can also be great. 

10."Feed your people." - Director Spike Lee  People can put up with a lot on a movie set. They can't be hungry. Take care of your nutrition. 

11."Raise the stakes." - Author Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons, Inferno) Make it competitive. Brown says, "the difference between good writers and bad writers is that good writers know when they're bad."

12."Obsess the product." - Entrepreneur Sara Blakely, CEO Spanx 

Blakely tells a story of an "Outward Bound" like adventure for executives. There was a cliff and participants each were hooked to a bungee cord. Each had to jump out to a crane where someone would catch them. She said she was not the biggest or the most athletic, but she jumped and made it to the 'catcher'. How? She aimed three feet ABOVE the target. Her advice, "Aim high." 

Twenty Day Challenge, Day 14 - A People Business

Sport is a microcosm of life, a people business. Great achievements happen through collaboration, working together to do more than one person can.

When a former President visited NASA in Houston, he asked a custodian about his job. The employee answered, "I helped put a man on the moon." Take pride in your job, show up. "Make the big time where you are."

People tend to pigeonhole coaches as "relationship-oriented" (players' coach) or "task-oriented" (hard guy). The best coaches combine people skills with game-focused competence. Coaches can't teach players to SEE THE GAME unless they have the team's attention and buy-in. 

What attributes help coaches and players win the 'people business'? 

Positive attitude. Negative attitudes foster negative results.

Energy. The coach and the star players cannot be energy vampires. 

Adding value. The best coaches and best players make those around them better. Some use the term "force multiplier." 

Speak greatness. Suggest don't qualify. Better to say, "That was good AND you might consider trying this" than "that was good BUT you should try this." 

Build confidence. Nobody can 'bestow confidence" on us. NFL championship coach Bill Parcells says, "confidence comes from proven success." Players have success from growth in skill, strategy, physical, and emotional strength. "Every day is player development day." 

Nothing sends a more powerful message than, "I believe in you." 

There Is Always Room for Improvement

To bring our best self, seek improvement. While doing so, seek understanding not validation.

Coach (and former Melrose AD) Sonny Lane set clear priorities for taking care of business:

• Home and family
• School
• Basketball

Elite coach Dawn Staley of South Carolina struggled at the University of Virginia initially. In an epiphany, she realized to do well academically, she had to care as much about school as she did about basketball. 

To capture your best success, here's a little advice. Write better. 

This small book helps...here are a few annotations:

1. Use a thesaurus (I didn't know thesaurus means treasury) to discover the ideal word. 

2. Keep a dictionary nearby to aid 'assiduous' study. Assiduous is a word that appears on SATs and similar tests. 

3. Spell correctly...especially names. Melrose had some brain-teasers this year. 

4. "Read, read, read, read, read." - Werner Herzog   Read widely. Recently I reread Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. 

5. Explore a new class. I'm taking one by former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi on MasterClass.

6. Listen and network. As Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot by just watching." 

7. Research. Think critically. We're wired to hear or read and accept as true. "You can't believe everything you read on the Internet" - Abraham Lincoln

8. Think it through. Write in your head. Ideas come from everywhere. Thresh them out. 

9. 0,0,0. Find your coordinates for reading, writing, studying. David Mamet had a cabin in the woods. Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) had a writing desk. 

Take pride in your accomplishments at home, in the classroom, and on the court. "There is no ability without eligibility." If you can learn volleyball or cooking, you can decipher calculus or American History. 

Twenty Day Challenge, Day 13 - Setting

The setter is the quarterback of the offense. She has the dual responsibility of decision-making and execution. She depends on teammates to get her the ball in favorable position and must deliver it "on time and on target" to the best strategic option.

Setters are NOT the only people who set. "Teach all your skills to all your players." Elite teams often have front row players who set for each other r back row hitting. 

The better the passes to the setter, the higher probability of her providing "cheddar biscuits" for hitters to feast upon.  

Some video will only play on YouTube. 

Cross-Posted, The Genius of Nick Saban

"Do not allow mistakes to go uncorrected."

Learn across domains. Principles from Alabama football from Coach Nick Saban work throughout life.  

Twenty Day Challenge, Day 12 - The Truth Machine

"What did you see?"

Rather than criticize a player for not making a better choice, educate her by sharing video and showing what alternatives existed and ranking them.

Video is the Truth Machine. Returning players have a lot of game video to study. Take advantage.

Remember the context of game play:

- Initial setup

- Player movement

- Ball movement

- The scoring moment

How might we organize film study?

• Study team play
• Study individual players
• Study your individual video
• Anson Dorrance (UNC Soccer) shows only positive video
• Doc Rivers (NBA Coach) advises no more than 13 clips/session
• Study an aspect of your game (e.g. serving, blocking, hitting)

Review results and edit your play.
 

Feedback

 In The Heart of Coaching, Thomas Green discusses, "performance-focused, feedback-rich" coaching for sustainable competitive advantage. 

The blog gets feedback, too. A Melrose volleyball fan shared, "The team had a great year and so did the blog." 

The reader added the big takeaways:

1) Be a good teammate. 

2) Do what is best for the team. 

I often share this concept, "Do more to become more; become more to do more." Excel in your role but aspire to increase it. Adam Grant's book, Give and Take, divides people among givers, matchers, and takers. Those at the top are ambitious givers. 

2022, Melrose Volleyball Stat Leaders Updated

2022 was an historic season in many ways. Here are a few:

• 10th Sectional Championship
• "Third Dynasty" of at least repeat sectional titles (2003-2005, 2009-2012, 2021-2022)
• Second defeat of undefeated team to win sectionals (AC 2003, Duxbury 2022)
• Undefeated Middlesex League Season 

 Along with team accomplishments, players earned individual distinctions (courtesy, Coach Scott Celli). Worth remembering that in a team sport, players rely on teammates helping them set individual achievements. 

Gia Vlajkovic vaulted into second place in single season kills. Chloe Gentile and Gia both reached the top ten in career kills.  

Ruth Breen ascended into the number three spot in single season kills just behind Lily Fitzgerald and the underrated Amanda Hallett. 

Gia Vlajkovic moved into a tie for the top 5 in the highest number of single game kills and etched her name among some well-known names. 

Twenty Day Challenge, Day 11 - "Moneyball"

"Analytics" impact the way we play sports. But does a given action, sequence, or player impact winning? This evolved partly from the work on Bill James in baseball, from Michael Lewis's best-seller Moneyball, and from Dean Oliver's Basketball on Paper. 

Offensive and defensive efficiency, turnovers committed and forced, and other statistics earned focus. Tracking numbers just for numbers' sake isn't that helpful. The local writer shares, "Susie Smith led the team in defeat with fourteen points." That doesn't say whether Susie played defense, rebounded, passed the ball, played hard, took thirty shots, or whatever. It's like saying, "It was the warmest day of the Antarctic winter." 

Good teams have more good possessions, make more "positive plays" and fewer negative ones. Missing shots and low attack efficiency, especially attack errors (balls into the net or out) prevent winning. 

If you're not scoring on setter dumps or back sets, it makes sense to reduce them. "Do more of what works and less of what doesn't."

Sometimes you work overtime to register a kill. Gia does here.