Creating Successful Programs 
Volleyball College/High School

The following are keys to developing successful volleyball college programs. Even if you coach high school, pay close attention because these same principles can be applied to your high school program.

Building a Dominating Volleyball College Program

1. As a coach, when you're going to find a position, be the interviewer not the interviewee. Focus on what they can do to help you. What scholarships do they have available. How they can support you. You need to know if they can give you the tools to be good. You need to know what their goals are.


2. Quality of the school. What's the schools reputation. What's the social life at the school. Colleges with great social life can attract the great players.


3. Facilities. You need to have at least average facilities. You should have air conditioning, modern clean locker rooms, and an attractive gym. Make it look like you care.


4. Building relationships. Make relationships with club directors. Wine and dime club directors. Tell them your dream of what you're trying to do. High schools are nothing. Club directors are the gatekeeper. Club directors will help push sleepers to you.


5. If you're taking over a program that isn't good, find winners. You need a base of winners. Keep the winners you got and train them. Get rid of all the others that aren't.


6. Find your assistant coach. Get an assistant coach that compliments you. This means they do what you can't. Find one that knows the game. Hire them to do what they do best. Don't hire them to do what they don't want to.


7. Find your horses. Your horses are young players that will typically start for you for 3 or 4 years and carry your program along. Doesn't matter what position. Ideally it's your setter. You got to get at least 2. They'll help you recruit other people in.


8. You must continually recruit players that are better than what you got. You can't settle for players that are weaker than what you have.


9. Create success through winning. Find the weakest tournaments and win matches that creates winning momentum and belief in players. Make small improvements in small phases. Raise your standards a little bit higher every day. You've got to want to get a little better every day.


10. Only recruit players that have won a lot.


11. Begin to mold your schedule from easy to more difficult. You want to play teams where you can focus on improving your weaknesses or integrate your new skills or strategies. The top teams are rarely challenged. It's not best to be challenged all the time.


12. At every level it's still all about the fundamentals. Learn to love teaching fundamentals!


13. Almost every school will try to have a whipping child.
    
    A. Gets the least amount of stuff (money per player),
    
    B. Gets the least amount of consideration (facility usage, facility quality).
    
    You want to create desires and expect them to happen. If you don't, they (the school) will pray on you because you're weak. If you create some ruckus, they will try to appease you because you show you care. You've got to stand up for your program.


14. When you're recruiting good club players for your program, you need to go watch them play as many times as you can.


15. Recruit all the best players so no one else can have them.


16. All practices need to be intense. And the only way that's going to happen is if all your players are real good.


17. Backup players need to understand their role.

High School Program Success

Building a successful high school program is very similar to building a successful volleyball college program.

The following are some very important things to consider.

1. Get 8th and 9th grade coaches you trust, train them, and explain to them the system they are going to be running. Make the glory of the program for everyone involved.
   
   When you have a banquet, bring in all the coaches (even 8th and 9th grade coaches). These coaches are going to be feeding your program.
   
   Everybody needs to be teaching the same stuff.
   
   You have to have a system and all the coaches needs to be teaching it.


2. You must push players to play club.


3. Create loyalty in your program. The coach needs to demand a standard of commodore and respect. The coach needs to be willing to feel connected to a situation bigger than them. Players need to be proud that they played for the team.

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Volleyball College Success!