Images from Jen Gentile (Including Senior Photos)

Photos courtesy of Jen Gentile. Click to enlarge the pictures. 

 

Early Division 2 Rankings

"Rank has its privilege." Maxpreps.com has its power ranking system that MIAA has chosen for statewide playoff seedings. 

The 32 top teams (of 53) will qualify and the first three rounds play at the higher seed. This makes winning, strength of schedule, margin of victory (sets), and head-to-head competition meaningful for seeding. 

It's early but here are the leaders in Division 2. 

The usual suspects are at the top of the Middlesex League. Not sure why Lexington's loss to Wakefield doesn't appear. 

Game 2: Melrose Wears Down Stubborn Tanners, 3-0

Melrose (2-0) captured its home opener 3-0 before an enthusiastic crowd at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School. 

Woburn carried the play early with a fast 5-9 lead. The Tanners featured three capable hitters, a solid libero, and aggressive serving throughout. But Melrose got it going with senior leadership with big performances from hitters Elena Soukos and Abby Hudson and libero Autumn Whelan. 

Soukos dominated play with fifteen kills with Hudson adding 6 in two sets before getting a break in the third. Juniors Chloe Gentile (6) and Gia Vlajkovic (7) provided critical attacks and blocking. Lanky lefty Ava Burns provided a pair of third set kills in relief of Abby as well as tough service. Sophomore Sophie Jaggers had some key blocks in the middle. 

Melrose raced out to a 7-0 lead in the third, playing inspiring early season volleyball. Elena finished the match with five kills as the denouement to the third set after Vlajkovic had delivered three early third set winners. 

Emma Desmond had a monster match with 32 assists. 

Early reports. 

This just in: sports are better with fans @WMHS_Warriors pic.twitter.com/GuV73gWEfK

— Wakefield Item Sports (@Wakeitemsports) September 14, 2021

Wakefield beats Lexington 3-2 with a 15-13 fifth set win. 

 

Create an Edge

What's your edge? Are you endowed with more size, athleticism, skill, game knowledge, resilience?

What do Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Mac Jones, Olympic gold medalists and others have as an edge?

Mindful meditation with controlled breathing lowers stress hormones, lower blood pressure and heart rate, improves sleep, decreases depression and anxiety, and improves focus, grades, and standardized test scores.

Mindfulness is apolitical and non-religious. It steps on nobody's toes. 

"But mindfulness isn't for tough athletes." 

Home Opener Tonight (Monday, September 13, 5:30 PM)

Melrose continues early season action against the Middlesex League Liberty Division hosting Woburn at 530 tonight. 

The Melrose Weekly News shares a season overview. 

Like Melrose, Woburn is reclassified in Division 2 and is off to an early 2-1 start. 

"Mystery Dates?" Volleyball Realignments: Enrollment Plus Private School "Factor"

Volleyball postseason play is evolving. The new system expands from three to five division, abandons "sections" and weighs enrollment and upgrades private schools a division.

This recognizes trends across the US where private schools won a disproportionate number of titles and concerns about recruitment (de facto All-Star teams) existed. 

Instead of sectional playoffs, playoffs would occur statewide so an EMASS team might host or visit a team from anywhere in Massachusetts in early rounds. Take care of business, earn a high seed, and play home games in the playoffs.

Seeding would occur not solely based on records. Computer rankings contribute and are explained here. "Computer rankings look solely at data." 

Reading and Woburn now compete in Division 2. 

The Most Valuable Award

The highest award from the North Carolina women's soccer program isn't the MVP. It's the Kelly Muldoon award, the character award. 

Find out why. 

Early Action

 

Key Middlesex League games Monday:

Melrose hosts Woburn at 5:30 in the home opener. Fans must wear masks. *CDC guidance on wearing face coverings (that page no longer updated)

Winchester travels to Burlington at 5:30. 

Ten Thoughts on Why Coaching Defines Destiny (AND or BUT)

Years ago a former Middlesex League coach described Melrose Volleyball as a "legacy program." They're solid year after year. Why? 

1. "Success leaves footprints." - Kevin Eastman

Consistent leadership outperforms whether it's high school sports or the pros. 

2. "Technique beats tactics." - Gregg Popovich

The best teams are the most consistent at core skills - serving, serve receiving, digging, passing, attacking and blocking. 

3. "Fight for your culture every day." 

The UNC Women's soccer team has won over twenty national titles. There's a sign in the locker room, Excellence is our only agenda  Teams struggle when individual agendas take precedence over team success.

4. "Coaches are the most selfish people in the world. We put the players on the field who give us the best chance to look good." - Bill Parcells

The players who absorb the teaching and do the things the coaches teach, the way they teach it, at the right time, will be on the court or the field.

5. "The magic is in the work." 

Outwork your opponent in practice, during the off-season, in games and good things happen. 

6. "Silent teams lose." - Kevin Eastman 

On-court communication is vital. 

7. "The best teams force players to prove their value." - Mike Lombardi in Gridiron Genius

Each year players have to prove they earn their position. Seniority systems based on age or years played don't reward merit and underachieve. 

8. "My ego demands the success of my team." - Bill Russell

Everyone decides which is more important, winning or individual achievement. In the stock market there's a saying, "price makes news." So does winning. 

9. "We make our habits and our habits make us." 

Winning habits cultivate winning performance. 49ers Coach Bill Walsh said it another way, "Champions behave like champions before they’re champions." Act like the person you want to be to become that person. 

10. "Discipline determines destiny."

Take care of business at home, in the classroom, and on the court. 

Alabama Coach Nick Saban asks whether you're an AND player or a BUT player. You don't want praise for how you play qualified by BUT he's selfish, or he's not fully engaged, or he got into a bar fight. You want AND she's an excellent student, she's a leader, and she's a good person. 

You aspire to be a captain? You're an AND player. Sometimes you make the team because you're an AND player. 

N

Melrose - Arlington Select Photos

Images courtesy of Jen Gentile. Click to enlarge.

Middlesex League Scores (via BostonGlobe.com)

Box Score Highlights

Melrose had a total team effort in a straight set win. 

Select scores (from BostonGlobe.com)

Opening Day Win, 3-0 at Arlington

.@BostonHeraldHS .@MassGHSVB .@MHSRedRaiders Final Girls Vball: Melrose 3 Arlington 0. - E. Soukos (10 kills) C. Gentile (7 kills) & G. Vlajkovic (6) lead in scoring. Melrose starts 1-0 will host Woburn Monday

— Melrose Weekly Sport (@MelroseWNSports) September 9, 2021

 

Opening Day

“Experience is what you got when you didn’t get what you wanted.” - Anonymous

Some players get their first varsity action today. Savor the experience. Enjoy the privilege. 

The discipline of doing what you had to do when you didn't want to, allows you to get what you want when you want. 

ACHIEVEMENT = EXCELLENCE x DURATION

Teamwork means sacrifice. 

Coach Celli shares that championship teams need three factors: 

• Good play 
• Good luck 
• Good health

Control what you can control. To a degree you control your health with your habits...eating right, getting your rest, and taking precautions in the COVID-19 era. 

Attending large gatherings on the weekends increases your chance of getting sick. And you're part of multiple teams - family, sport, school, and community. Poor decisions affect those teams, especially your family and your sports team. You only get so many bites at the championship apple. 

Around the Net: 

1. The opening day game will not be live-streamed from Arlington. 

2. "It's the scoreboard, not the scorebook." Highlight scores:

Rankings Across the Board

Volleyball has expanded to five divisions (the pendulum always swings). Melrose remains in Division 2. 

Truth emerges as games are played. 

 

“I’m a Salesman” - Chuck Daly

"I'm a salesman." - Chuck Daly (two time NBA Champion coach)

You may not realize it, but we're constantly selling. Persuasion is our business as a teacher, a retailer, a health care worker. 

And of course, as a coach. Coaches seek to add value through building skills, athleticism, game knowledge, resilience, and more. And players "buy in" to the program seeking minutes (court time), shots (role), and compensation (money for professionals and recognition at other levels). 

Coaches reward those who do what they teach, how they teach it, at the right time. And players perform both hard and soft skills.

"The magic is in the work," so be prepared to do the unrequired work that separates extraordinary from ordinary. In school that might mean reading five more pages or five more problem sets. And in sports it may mean five more sprints or taking five more serves. 

Coaches see everything. You're selling your game. 

Early Season Schedule

Three of the first five matches open the "West Coast" swing of the schedule - Arlington, Belmont, and Watertown. 

If Santa Claus is listening, I'm asking for an early Christmas present of live streaming of these away matches.

Around the Net: 

Winchester has become one of Melrose's most formidable opponents. Here's a profile of John Fleming and Winchester. 

What's the MIAA cancellation policy if games are lost to COVID-19? "If a game is canceled due to one team having a case of COVID, it would be considered a no-contest for power ratings."

Analogies Work for Sport Across Many Disciplines

1) News. 

• Melrose had another successful Play Date traveling to play some top area teams including Westborough, Newton North, Concord-Carlisle, Medway, and Walpole. 
• Everyone "did their job."
• Melrose will again stream home games this season. No word on other communities. 

2) Thinking of analogies... (see below)... Miami Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra reminds us that "every team has a pecking order." A player's responsibility is to excel in her role whether that's an offensive or defensive leader or encouraging teammates as a reserve. Be ready for when your name gets called. 

3) Learn how to think across disciplines using analogies. Many consider Johannes Kepler as one of the great analogical thinkers of history. Here are examples from other domains including cooking, business, acting, and more. 

Excerpt:

"Never accept the fact that something is yours." - Sam Jackson

• Fight for a position every day. Someone is coming for you. 
• “You had to look at your players and defend every player to the rest of the organization.” (Al Davis philosophy for the Oakland Raiders in Michael Lombardi's Gridiron Genius)
• Michael Jordan told Roy Williams that he would work as hard as any player ever at Carolina. Williams told him that he had to work harder than that. 

“We’ll See How It Goes”

Metacognition means "thinking about thinking." We may "jump to conclusions" because we're 'wired' to respond for safety. If a speeding car heads toward us, we don't think, we react and jump away. 

But we may "overreact" in other situations. 

Here are the preseason volleyball rankings from The Boston Globe. 

They're opinion and literally based on a "sample size" of zero. 

Other cognitive biases may come into play. We suffer "endowment effect" because we overvalue what is ours, whether it's a coffee mug, a sports team, or a defensive specialist. What's mine is better...because it's mine. As a sports parent, I know that feeling. 

We also struggle with "confirmation bias." We read or listen to arguments that reinforce our preexisting beliefs. We ignore "disconfirming evidence." A helpful example comes from Michael Lewis's seminal book, Moneyball. General manager Billy Beane asked, "if he's such a good hitter, why doesn't he hit better?" 

Before we take umbrage at rankings, let's remember the messages from Don Miguel Ruiz's "The Four Agreements." 

Don't take it personally and don't make assumptions. 

Bill Belichick, a master of understatement, often has a versatile answer when asked about his team or a player's future. "We'll see how it goes." 

Another Excellent Effort in Scrimmage Versus Marblehead

Melrose hosted well-coached Marblehead in its second scrimmage Thursday afternoon. Marblehead sported a 38-13 record (via Maxpreps) during the previous four seasons.

Scrimmages and player development carry particular importance during this season. Teams have only so much depth, especially during this COVID-19 impacted volleyball season. 

Should key players be forced into quarantine or isolation (like the Boston Red Sox), major impacts can occur. 

Melrose has exceptional hitting depth led by senior outside hitters Elena Soukos and Abby Hudson, young but experienced middles in Chloe Gentile and Sadie Jaggers, and strength at opposite with Gia Vlajkovic and Ava Burns. My rule of thumb is that you need three "dynamite" hitters for deep playoff runs and Melrose fills that bill. 

Autumn Whelan 'hoovered' everything at libero during the scrimmage and she has the potential to be an All-League defender. The "quarterback" of offense is the setter and Emma Desmond has the key role requiring strong decision-making and accuracy. 

Coach Scott Celli has the perspective to know when he can "go for it" with championship aspirations. He has that type of group. 

Lagniappe (something extra). Melrose recently scrimmaged Lynnfield but Lynnfield gets top billing in the initial Boston Globe volleyball piece. Melrose squeaks into their top 20 at 20. Lynnfield is at 11. 

 

Another Volleyball Site to Watch

Another volleyball site to check in on is the Twitter feed from Mass Girls HS VBall and their more inclusive website. Click through to the latter for their rankings. 

Making Good Decisions Is Highly Underrated

Times exist when you can "go for it." And other times, I'll call it "get me over" time, you get the ball over the net and keep it in play. Keep the 'possession' alive. 

Effective players know the difference. I won't mention the game from many seasons ago, when a player hit the final point of the match (literally a "get me over" push) into the net. It didn't change history. 

In basketball, about a third of games are decided by two possessions (six points) or fewer. A couple of bad fouls, turnovers, or failed block outs... maybe in the first quarter, come back to bite us. 

Volleyball scoring rewards one team every play, which is why "playing present" matters. You can't allow one play or mistake to bleed into the next. 

This clip from an old classic, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, shows the importance of good decisions. 

Stay focused, make good decisions. 

Lady Raiders Start Strong Against Pioneers

Melrose hosted perennial powerhouse Lynnfield in a scrimmage today and gave them all they could handle. Coach Scott Celli had to be pleased with the initial effort and performance. 

The Lady Raiders return an experienced, senior-laden team with a wealth of hitting power. 

Depending on health and an occasional favorable bounce, the team should be one of the top squads in Eastern Massachusetts. 

Jen Gentile shares images (click to enlarge)...

The next scrimmage is September 2nd at 5 P.M. home against Marblehead. 

"Give and Take"

An independent blog, content is strictly the opinion of the author and not the City of Melrose, the Melrose School Department, or the Melrose High School Athletic Department. 

It is great to be part of a team, but it's not enough. Ego tells us to want more to want a bigger role, more recognition, more court time. 

Adam Grant's exceptional book, Give and Take, teaches us that's okay, but get more by giving more. 

"Takers are black holes, they suck energy from the system. The Givers are suns, they inject light around the organization. Givers create opportunities for their colleagues to contribute to a meeting, they listen, even if they disagree, they don’t belittle people."

Givers win through blending altruism with ambition. "Paranoia is caused by people that I call takers...it's all about what you can do for me." 

Rules and Uncertainty

A recent Boston Globe article laid out a few positions from the MIAA. Call me skeptical, but they didn't add much clarity. Much of this feels shrouded in legal considerations. 

Masks: 

"According to MIAA associate executive director Richard Pearson, the SMC will look for guidance from state and local officials to determine masking requirements for interscholastic competitions."

Boys on Girls' volleyball teams:

"After a lengthy discussion, the board decided to eliminate volleyball Rule 83.5 — which states that a boy playing on a girls’ volleyball team (if the school doesn’t field a boys’ program) cannot play the ball in front of the 10-foot line, or participate in an attempted block. The board voted to address the topic in December after the Blue Ribbon Committee and Volleyball Committee coordinate with legal counsel to craft a new proposal regarding the rule."

Melrose squared off against Burlington with front row boys in the mid 2000's and sent more than a few attacks back while sweeping the Red Devils. 

If a school lacked a boy's team, could they field fifty percent or more boys?

NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness:

"While amateur athletes may engage in activities consistent with state law, the board cited Rule 47 as the definition of amateurism, warning that any compensation related to a student’s participation with high school athletics would result in the loss of amateur status."

This also feels like a slippery slope. While few high school athletes have the fame or cachet to command major endorsements, a talented singer or musician could be compensated for performing but not athletes capitalizing on their recognition.  

With the steady rise of coronavirus cases in Massachusetts before schools and colleges have opened, we have limited guidance as to whether the Spring 2021 policies will remain (limited attendance, streaming video). I'd expect that to be likely.

(Repost) "I've Made the Team. What Now?"

Last night during the Red Sox game, Ellis Burks shared how Barry Bonds might greet a rookie, even one simply looking for an autograph. "What have you done?" 

It's great to make the team, to have the opportunity for shared work and shared sacrifice. But it's not enough. Strive to improve every day, mastering physical and mental preparation.

What Now?

"This Is Your Team"

Making any of the Melrose volleyball teams is tough, amidst high commitment and competition. Finding a role is just as tough.

Team selection is only part of the process. "Fight for the culture everyday" to be a good teammate and a contributor.

This is the initial roster. First-year varsity players are Anna Shoemaker and Ruth Breen. 

In basketball, we teach "win this possession," yet not every possession scores. In volleyball, "playing present" is especially relevant, not "giving away" possessions. 

Where to Follow Melrose Volleyball

There's no 'home base' to stay current. But Maxpreps.com has roster updates and is usually good with schedules.

The most current roster information shows up early here. 

There's a great chance that those girls will set the record for most wins in a calendar year with a 'second season' in 2021. 

The Melrose Weekly News is another excellent source both the print edition and their Facebook page. 

Upcoming scrimmages:

Home versus Lynnfield (August 31, 5 PM)

Home versus Marblehead (September 2, 5 PM)

I do not know what the admission policy will be this year. 

Freshmen Tryout and MHS Volleyball Trivia

Here’s a link from Melrose Athletics 

Lady Raider quiz: What former Melrose volleyballer who played on the Freshman team also played on the State Championship team? 

Tryouts Are Underway

Volleyball hopefuls seek to show the best versions of themselves for the upcoming season. 

Key principles include commitment and a lack of entitlement. In this piece from my basketball blog, I share quotes from David Halberstam's The Education of a Coach about the coaching origins of Bill Belichick. 

“You had to look at your players and defend every player to the rest of the organization” because "there is no celebration of any victory in the past..."

Extra credit. Former Lady Raider Samantha Dewey has accepted an offer to play basketball at the University of Illinois.