New year and a new team this year. What are you most excited about as the season is about to start?
At the two-year college level, it's nearly new every season. Some of the four-year college coaches are getting to experience this now with the transfer portal, and navigating what the real culture is within their programs. For us, a new season brings lots of new challenges. We are excited about how our returners performed in the spring season. We are excited about our incoming players that include two transfers. We are playing a good schedule with a couple of new tournaments, so we are navigating that too.
Are there any roster changes from last year that change the style of play your teams have exhibited over the years? Or do you recruit to fit your style of play?
We generally recruit the best people who fit our program's behaviors. We tend to look at the best athletic ability, behaviors, and contributions to our team ( we call them the ABCs). Each season is quite different in terms of personnel, which can change our offensive and defensive strategies. We have some things that we like to maintain, but you never really know until you get into it how it will work out.
Illinois is consistently ranked in the top five as one of the best states for Club and High School volleyball. The area around MCC also has a lot of talent. As coaches you work with volleyball year-round in the area, do you have any players on your team this year that you have watched or worked with that now can become contributors for the Scots?
It's sometimes difficult to keep the talent nearby home for college. However, between the education that our college offers and the program's success, we have gotten increased interest in staying at home and sleeping in their own beds for a couple more years. We have a player coming up on the roster this year who started off playing club with us as a middle school-aged player who is also in our fire science program (Izzy Lampier). We have a player on the roster who we initially recruited in 2023 who went to an NCAA D2 program and has since returned to play for us this year (Kaitlyn Mullen).
Are there any players from last year's roster that will have a bigger role this season?
The Riccis (Alissa and Bri) from McHenry High School had a great spring season with us, and we expect a lot from them in leadership roles both on and off the court. Courtney will continue to be a shock of energy and a big part of our success.
Do you set individual goals for any players? Kills per game, for example? Sometimes coaches use smaller stat success to help paint a bigger picture for the team's success.
Oddly enough, we don't really set benchmarks until we get into the season for individual and team stats. Make no mistakes, though, we are a data-driven program and work a lot on conversion and scoring points - like the movie "Moneyball."
OWT is a tournament that so many teams attend to start the volleyball season. It is a great tournament to start the season for many teams. As a coach, is this like your pre-season to find your starters and key players? I know with each match you go out to win, but does this tournament help you build chemistry within your team? At a tournament, you might see what a player is made of before you set a line-up?
OWT is colossal at this point. 81 colleges are coming to Rockford this year. OWT is "Go Time." By that point, we have already been with the group since August 1 and had a lot of time together. We get through intra-team competition in the weeks leading up to opening weekend. We have some team building built into the preseason, and that helps build relationships off the court so that we play better on the court with a better understanding of everyone.
Is there a theme or a mantra you have set for this team to follow for the entire year? A slogan, maybe, like "Energy and Effort," maybe, or something like that?
With the two-year college, we are constantly evolving. The first year with players, we talk about "Buy In." The second year, we talk about "Ownership." The standards for us remain in place of Team, Teammate, and Self.
As each season starts, some coaches have a few games circled on their schedules going into the season. Do you have any worth noting?
Being a top team in the region and nationally recognized, every match is a big match. We had the highest winning % in the region last year and were recognized as high as 11th in the National poll. We added a match to our schedule against Carl Sandburg at home, who I don't think has ever been to MCC in our tenure. The match is set for September 18. CSC attended the 2024 NJCAA D2 National Tournament. In general, our schedule matches a competition load to prepare us to compete with the top teams in the country. In October, we will go to Heartland and Parkland colleges, respectively, and will see some of the top ten teams in the country that weekend.
Kyle and Shari, you two have coached together successfully for many years. What is the best way to describe your success as a tandem?
We know our roles. We know we are on the same team. We love what we do. We love the support we receive from our leadership, top-down. Entering year 13 together, I really can't believe that Shari has stuck it out with me this long. Shari has a voice in everything we do, which helps balance things. We don't say Shari is the assistant coach, but rather that she is our other coach. Shari is included in almost all communications - just like a head coach, and in return, she puts forth the effort like she is the head coach. We treat our jobs as coaches as full-time, big-deal jobs, and have since we started. The success comes from collaboration.
What is your number one goal for this team you want to achieve by year's end?
We will lead the department in GPA.
Our list of goals looks like - A: Academic Excellence, B: Ball control, C: See you in Cedar Rapids (national tournament expectation)
