Dr. Tom Hanson is a high performance psychology coach. He was Derek Jeter's 'guy'. Jeter's confident "stand tall" walk to the plate was part of the training.
Years ago I attended a conference where Dr. Hanson was a speaker - big on process, habits, and routine. Focus is a superpower.
One of the defining characteristics of Navy SEAL culture is this: The mission and the team come before the individual. In today’s world, everybody wants recognition. But elite teams are built through selflessness. The mentally tough stop asking: “What’s best for me?” And pic.twitter.com/8CRCHGmHuC
— Brian Cain (@BrianCainPeak) August 28, 2026
Seek contribution not recognition.
Consistent contribution gets you noticed. Some past MVB teams have read "Toughness." Of the many lessons within, one is "It's not your shot, it's our shot."
Another core SEAL concept is "Two is one and one is none." For any mission-critical item or skill, have a backup. Relying on a single resource creates a single point of failure where losing or breaking that one item leaves you with none.
MVB 26 has a roster full of potential contributors. That means "depth" and often means "sacrifice" to make the team stronger.
You love volleyball and want more information on area volleyball. Where do you go for research?
AI (ChatGPT Plus) did the heavy lifting.
Parents, players, coaches, and fans often ask the same question:
Where can I find more information about Massachusetts girls’ high school volleyball? The short answer is: you have to know where to look.
Unlike football or basketball, high school volleyball rarely receives comprehensive coverage from a single media source. Scores may appear in one place, rankings in another, and individual player stories somewhere else.
Fortunately, several useful resources can help.
Massachusetts High School Volleyball may be the best single clearinghouse for Massachusetts volleyball.
🔗 MassHSVB.com
The site includes:
MassHSVB maintains standings across leagues throughout Massachusetts and updates tournament information as matches are completed.
Two particularly useful pages:
🔗 MassHSVB Rankings
During the season, the site's Today's Matches page can also be useful for finding scores from around the state.
🔗 Today's Matches
For official schedules, records, power rankings, tournament qualification, and playoff brackets, go directly to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
🔗 MIAA Volleyball
🔗 MIAA Power Rankings
The MIAA's Game Day system is particularly important once the season gets underway. Results entered by schools into Arbiter feed the MIAA power-ranking system. During the regular season, the MIAA traditionally publishes updated power rankings twice weekly after the initial rankings appear (usually after 6-8 matches).
Remember: newspaper rankings tell you what people think. MIAA power rankings help determine whom and where you play in November.
MaxPreps provides another useful statewide database.
🔗 Massachusetts Girls Volleyball — MaxPreps
You can search by:
The completeness of individual team statistics depends heavily on what schools and coaches upload, but MaxPreps becomes especially valuable when researching individual players.
There is another reason players should know about it: the Massachusetts Volleyball Coaches Association uses MaxPreps statistics as part of its All-State selection process.
For postseason recognition, the Massachusetts Volleyball Coaches Association is essential.
🔗 MAVCA
MAVCA selects the Massachusetts girls' All-State teams and maintains information about coaching, clinics, awards, and state volleyball history.
For players and parents, one page is particularly worth bookmarking:
🔗 MAVCA Girls All-State Teams
It is an excellent way to learn who the established and emerging elite players are around Massachusetts.
The statewide databases tell us what happened.
Good local sportswriters sometimes tell us how and why it happened.
🔗 Boston Globe High School Sports
The Globe remains one of the most important sources for Greater Boston high-school sports, particularly for:
A simple Google search can sometimes work better than navigating the site:
site.com girls volleyball + school or player name
For example:
site.com volleyball "Melrose"
or
site.com volleyball "Newton North"
🔗 Boston Herald High School Sports
The Herald has traditionally provided considerable high-school sports coverage, including rankings, tournament previews, results, and All-Scholastic recognition.
Try searches such as:
site.com "girls volleyball"
or
site.com volleyball Melrose
For Central and Western Massachusetts in particular:
🔗 MassLive High School Sports
MassLive can be valuable when researching teams such as Longmeadow, Westborough, Shrewsbury, Minnechaug, Wachusett, Westfield, and other programs outside the immediate Boston media footprint.
Search:
site.com volleyball + player/team
For Lynn, Lynnfield, Swampscott, Saugus, Marblehead, Peabody, and surrounding communities:
🔗 The Daily Item
The Item continues to publish substantial local high-school coverage, including volleyball previews, player profiles, power-ranking updates, and tournament stories.
Depending upon the opponent, useful coverage may also appear in outlets such as:
Coverage varies greatly by town and season, but searching the school name + volleyball often uncovers stories you otherwise would never see.
Google remains one of the best high-school volleyball research tools.
Instead of searching simply:
Melrose volleyball
try:
"Melrose" "girls volleyball"
"Melrose volleyball" 2026
"Middlesex League" girls volleyball
Quotation marks are useful because they force Google to search for the exact player, team, or phrase.
For an individual player, try several combinations:
"Jane Smith" volleyball Massachusetts
"Jane Smith" volleyball Winchester
"Jane Smith" MaxPreps
That often produces substantially better results than one broad search.
Another underrated source is the athletic department itself.
School athletic websites frequently contain:
Many Massachusetts schools use ArbiterSports, and those schedules ultimately contribute to the MIAA's official records and power rankings.
When looking for tonight's match, searching:
"[school name] athletics volleyball schedule"
may be faster than searching a newspaper.
Information increasingly appears first on social media.
MassHSVB reports scores and updates through its social accounts, including @MassGHSVB on X and @MassHSVB on Instagram.
Also search for:
As always, remember the distinction:
Social media is fast. It isn't necessarily verified.
For an official score, ranking, or tournament position, check the MIAA or another reliable source.
There isn't a Massachusetts equivalent of ESPN covering every volleyball match.
So use several lenses.
For tonight's schedule: school athletics / MIAA / MassHSVB.
For statewide rankings: MassHSVB and MIAA.
For player statistics: MaxPreps.
For All-State recognition: MAVCA.
For previews, features, and All-Scholastics: Globe, Herald, MassLive, and local newspapers.
For breaking information: social media.
And perhaps the best research habit is simply:
Search the player. Search the team. Search the opponent.
High-school volleyball coverage is fragmented, but considerably more information exists than most people realize.
You just have to know where to look.
Volleyball players have more equipment choices than ever. In every tournament you'll see combinations of knee pads, ankle braces, sleeves, tape, and accessories.
The challenge is separating fashion from effectiveness.
Protective equipment should not be a design statement. It should not be political. It should not be "hit and miss." The best choices are evidence-based, practical, and simple enough for consistent use.
The goal is to stay healthy, available, and able to perform at a high level.
For most volleyball players, knee pads are the easiest decision.
Volleyball involves diving, sprawling, and repeated contact with the floor. Knee pads reduce abrasions and bruising while making players more willing to pursue difficult balls.
The best knee pad is usually not the biggest or most expensive. It is the one that fits properly, stays in place, and allows unrestricted movement.
Protection matters. Mobility matters too.
Ankle injuries are among the most common injuries in volleyball.
Research suggests that athletes with a history of ankle sprains benefit from braces or structured support. For players who have previously injured an ankle, a brace can reduce the likelihood of another sprain. I've previously written that braces are more effective than tape.
For athletes without a history of ankle problems, the decision is less clear. Some choose support for peace of mind. Others prefer unrestricted movement.
The important question is, "What risk am I trying to manage?"
Elbow sleeves offer protection against floor burns, abrasions, and minor impacts.
For defensive specialists and players who spend significant time on the floor, sleeves may provide useful protection. For others, they may offer little practical benefit.
Comfort and function should drive the decision.
Mouthguards are common in many sports but less common in volleyball.
Most volleyball injuries involve fingers, ankles, shoulders, or knees rather than dental trauma. However, collisions with teammates, posts, or the floor do occur.
Data indicates that approximately 11,000 to 14,000 volleyball-related concussions occur annually in the United States across organized youth, high school, and college play. A Melrose player suffered a severe concussion several years ago, although it's hard to imagine a mouthguard preventing that particular injury.
Players with braces should strongly consider mouth protection. Others may decide the risk does not justify routine use.
The padding typically covers:
Advantages:
A useful question is: "Does this solve a real problem?" If the answer is no, it may simply be adding cost, complexity, or distraction.
The most effective protection is not something you buy.
It is:
The healthiest athletes are usually the athletes who make good decisions day after day.
Protective equipment can help. Good habits add special layers of protection.
Lagniappe.
Lagniappe 2. Via Claude.ai
Lagniappe. Do compression socks/leggings actually do anything?
You see them on plenty of teams now — knee-high socks, full leggings, calf sleeves. Worth it, or just a look? The research says: depends what you're using them for.
During the match — don't expect a performance edge. The evidence for compression boosting jump height, power, or speed while playing is thin. One old (1996) study found volleyball players got a bump in average jump height in compression shorts, but not max height — not exactly a ringing endorsement. The more interesting finding is on the sensory side: compression seems to sharpen proprioception and balance by enhancing feedback from the skin and muscles, which could matter for an ankle/landing-heavy sport. But that's stability, not vertical.
After the match — this is where it earns its place. Multiple meta-analyses (pooling dozens of studies) show a real, moderate benefit: less soreness (DOMS), faster return of strength and power, lower markers of muscle damage. Not every study agrees on every marker — the inflammatory-marker data especially is mixed — but the strength/power/soreness signal holds up reasonably well across independent reviews.
The catch: dose matters. The clearest recovery wins came from extended, continuous wear — think 24 hours post-exercise, not 20 minutes in the locker room. A few hours in compression socks after a match is a much weaker dose than sleeping in them.
One volleyball-specific data point: a 2019 study on elite female volleyball players tested compression socks on long-haul flights (Australia to the Philippines), tracking jump performance, well-being, and blood-clotting markers. Useful context for tournament travel days, less so for a Tuesday practice.
Bottom line: skip the marketing claim that they'll make you jump higher. Use them as a recovery tool — ideally overnight after a tough match or tournament day — and as a reasonable option for long travel. The "feels less tired" reports are real, even if some of that is the players knowing they're wearing them (none of these studies can be blinded, so there's an honest placebo asterisk on the subjective side).
Sources: Sears et al. (1996) on volleyball jump height; Dupuy et al., "An Evidence-Based Approach for Choosing Post-exercise Recovery Techniques" (Frontiers in Physiology, 2018); Hill et al., "Compression garments and recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage: a meta-analysis" (2014); Li et al., "Effects of Compression Garments on Muscle Strength and Power Recovery Post-Exercise" (Life, 2025); Broatch et al., "Effects of Sports Compression Socks on Performance, Physiological, and Hematological Alterations After Long-Haul Air Travel in Elite Female Volleyballers" (J Strength Cond Res, 2019).
Useful Link:
Maxpreps.com shares a wealth of information - schedules, rosters, scores, statistics and more.
Geno Auriemma has won 12 NCAA national championships with UConn women's basketball: 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2025.Remarkably, he's 12–1 in NCAA championship games.
He said something like, "You don't have to score 20 points a game but you have to do something."
Here's a simple version:
1. Make your team better.
2. Make the players around you better.
3. Impact winning.
Star in your role. If you are a deep reserve, challenge starters in practice. Support your teammates. Be the loudest cheerleader, all while you work to grow your game.
Coaches see everything. You are not "on an island."
Write it Down. pic.twitter.com/tuWWN9w0FV
— Book Therapy (@Book_therapy223) August 27, 2026
Coaches send messages and often hope they're 'heard'. The urgency varies.
MVB 26 is set. The lineups are not. Coach Scott Celli delivered the message that the next eleven days would decide the opening day lineups.
The players heard and the operative word at practice was described as "competitive."
Message received.
Lagniappe.
A team simply cannot be consistently great on game night until it is first consistently great at practice
— Matt Kramer (@coachk6463) August 27, 2026
“No team, organization or culture simply drifts into excellence…it’s a result of intensional effort and purpose…It’s built over time through trust, alignment, and consistency.”
— Allistair McCaw (@AllistairMcCaw) August 27, 2026
— Chapter 4: ‘Standards of Excellence.’#ConsistentExcellence
📕 🔗 https://t.co/YpGfca0TmO pic.twitter.com/3cssTmVsdV
Excellence isn't gifted. The best coach in the world can't "award" you excellence.
Coaches create structure, inform proper technique, and make corrections.
"Coaching includes correction. Correction is not criticism."
When does a team have a chance at excellence? Excellence happens when the players are as driven and desirous of success as the coach...and have "enough" talent.
As Bill Belichick would say, "We'll see how it goes."
Lagniappe. Read, communicate, execute.
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. The blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose organization.
Make the improbable possible. Be "dirt dogs."
The three most important takeaways from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile are:
The core idea is that some systems don’t just survive volatility — they benefit from it. Muscles grow from stress; evolution advances through random mutation; decentralized societies adapt faster than centralized ones. Taleb distinguishes three categories:
Fragile — harmed by volatility
Robust — resists volatility but doesn’t improve
Antifragile — improves because of volatility
This framing pushes you to design your life, decisions, and systems so they have convexity — more upside than downside when randomness hits.
Taleb argues that the fastest path to strength is removing sources of fragility, not adding new features or interventions. Examples include eliminating debt, cutting harmful habits, reducing over‑optimization, and avoiding unnecessary medical or bureaucratic meddling (“iatrogenics”). The principle: remove what makes you weak before adding what might make you strong.
Taleb insists that you cannot reliably forecast rare, high‑impact events (“Black Swans”). Instead, you should position yourself to benefit from them.
Two tools make this possible:
Optionality — small bets with limited downside and large upside
Barbell strategy — keep most resources extremely safe while allocating a small portion to high‑risk, high‑reward opportunities
This structure protects you from ruin while exposing you to positive randomness.
Playing with joy is a skill. Mudita comes from Sanskrit meaning "your joy is my joy." Be happy, not envious, for the success of others.
Lagniappe. Play like J-Mac. You've heard of chicken and waffles...she served up chicken wings and pancakes.
*Adapted from my basketball blog.
As student-athletes, aspire to communication excellence - verbal, nonverbal, presentation.
Part of that includes better use of slides in your presentations.
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As student-athletes, aspire to communication excellence - verbal, nonverbal, presentation.
Part of that includes better use of slides in your presentations.
