THE NIGHT BEFORE!

August 31, 2016

BY COACH AMBER WARNERS

As I sit quietly tonight – the night before our first match, I find myself thinking similar thoughts like I do every year.  I wonder if other coaches are thinking some of these same thoughts or if it is just me.  I ask myself if we have prepared our players to the very best we could.  Do I have any regrets on things we didn’t cover or minutes wasted in practice?  I ask myself if we had the right balance of conditioning to skill work to character skills.  I ask myself if I have prepared them mentally well enough.   They have worked so incredibly hard all summer and for the past 2 weeks.  Did I over train them?  Will their bodies feel fresh enough?   What team will this one be compared to teams of the past?  Will they be gritty when things don’t go smoothly, will they stick together in all the situations they will find themselves in this weekend.  As Mike Krzyzewski says in one of his books…. every season is like having a new child.  The team starts out as an infant and by the time the season closes the child dies of old age.  And every child’s personality is different.  Well, this team is in its toddler stage.  They have laughed and cried these past few weeks just like infants do.  We have freshmen who want their mothers (while this is true, I don’t mean to say that in any negative way; I say it tongue in cheek).  They pretty much eat and sleep when they aren’t playing like babies do.  Their personality is starting to show and they are still dependent on their leaders.  They are witty, stubborn, and they struggle between thinking about themselves while they strive to be unselfish with each other.  They will grow after this first weekend and start to become adolescents where they will start to think more on their own.  And I could go on and on. I love the analogy because the stages a team goes through seem to fit exactly like a person’s life stages.

I am excited for tomorrow.  I am nervous for tomorrow.  I can recognize how I got uptight on the little things that went on today knowing it was more my stress of upcoming matches than what was really happening.  My three boys know this cycle well.  They always seem to help out a little more around the house when mom has an upcoming match.  I try hard not to bring it home but sometimes it seems impossible.  There is so much emotional investment. 

And while I go through all of these feelings, I can’t wait for things to get started.  I can’t wait to get on that bus tomorrow and have the team all together with no distractions.  I can’t wait to watch them farkle to see who is going to have to sing their food order to the waitress.  I can’t wait to see where we are at after all the work we have put in when we finally get on the court tomorrow. 

I know of no other vocation more than coaching where one experiences so many different emotions within a day’s time.  I had so many people ask me today if I was “ready” for tomorrow. I don’t know how to answer that question because it really doesn’t matter if I am ready for a match.  I will be spending most of my time this weekend watching because my preparation has happened every day for the past 2 weeks.  My work is virtually done besides managing strategy and game plans.  It is mostly in the hands of the players once they are competing on the court.  For a person who likes to be in control (as all head coaches do), that can be a difficult tension to live in. 

And once again, I ask myself….do other coaches feel these same feelings?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Good night!   IT IS GAME DAY TOMORROW!  FINALLY!

Grateful

Hi! My name is Alyssa Scholten. I am a junior on Calvin College’s Women’s Volleyball Team. As I am sitting here reflecting on and writing about the past two weeks of preseason and the past two years on the team, there is one word that comes to my mind—grateful.  I know the returners hope the freshmen will soon feel grateful as well. Calvin volleyball has given me many reasons to be grateful—here are just a few:

I am grateful for the forever friendships formed with coaches and teammates.

I am grateful for a place to go to escape from the stress of school, if only for a few hours a day.

I am grateful for a support system of strong Christian women.

I am grateful for amazing Christian teammates that have become more than role models as I have looked up to them and felt their support. I am now grateful for the opportunity to use what I learned to support the new freshmen. 

I am grateful for locker room dance parties and sing-a-longs to “No Air” by Jordin Sparks.

I am grateful for a safe place that I can be vulnerable, share my struggles, and be myself.

I am grateful for a lot of free food—I mean A LOT, A LOT.

I am grateful for a place where I feel like I belong.

I am grateful for a group of people I trust to hold me accountable.

I am grateful for a team that prays together daily, goes to chapel together weekly, and makes devotions a habit.

I am grateful for situations and circumstances that push me physically, mentally, and spiritually.

I am grateful for coaches that care about not only my growth as a volleyball player, but also my mental toughness and spiritual depth.

I am grateful for the life lessons learned and the character traits developed through the highs and lows of our season.

I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to play the game I love with people I love.

These are just a few of the reasons I am grateful to be a part of Calvin’s Volleyball Team. While there are many successful teams out there, our team’s real success doesn’t lie in our season’s record, game stats, or how far we get in the tournament, but rather in the culture we create. I hope that through this post you can catch a glimpse of what makes our team so special and sets us apart from the rest. I am proud to be a part of such an amazing program and so grateful for all the ways it has been a blessing to me.

Love,

Alyssa 

A Senior Captain's Thoughts

If there's one thing I've learned this week, it's that becoming a Calvin volleyball senior and captain does not come without immense responsibility, on and off the court. This, along with the stress of applying to physical therapy graduate school and school starting, makes for a hectic life  That being said, I wouldn't trade any of these responsibilities for the world. 

I am learning about myself as well, in the midst of the chaos of preseason. Thinking beyond the season, I will admit I am scared of not having volleyball in my life. The past 3 years these girls and coaches have been my family and Cball has been a sense of home and security for me. I'm both terrified and excited to discover who I will be after my volleyball chapter comes to a close.

Our retreat this year was one of the best yet. My favorite memory was making 5 minute movies. The teams were divided by class, with the seniors joining the coaches. Megan Rietema had the idea of remaking the movie "Jaws"....with Coach Warners playing the shark. I've never seen Coach in that element (she actually got in the water) and I loved every second of it! 

Thanks to the Olivet Partner Challenge (A test partners on the team take to see how well they know each other), Abby Moore and I truly now know each other on a deeper, perhaps even creepier, level. (Shout-out to Mark, Karen, Sam, Joe, and Gus (dog) Moore).  Don't worry, we'll take good care of Ab Mo here! 

Overall, I think the retreat was an awesome start to building 19 sisters strong. I think the newcomers are really starting to find their place on the team! Seeing their personalities start to develop is so much fun! This upcoming weekend's Chicago tournament is going to be amazing!! Looking forward to this season with all of these lovely ladies! 

Love, 

Laura Danhoff 

Coach's Week One Perspective

August 26, 2016 

WEEK ONE REFLECTIONS

This is my 16^th year leading Calvin’s volleyball program and I am again extremely grateful for the opportunity as well as humbled in the way God has led this program.  This preseason has been no different than the last 15.  Every one for me has been different.  Every year can be very similar in some ways and turns out extremely different and unique all at the same time.   Some of the similarities include:

1.     The freshmen are in culture shock:  They are filled with feelings of being home sick for the first time, asking themselves if the returners are really this nice all the time, feelings of not being good enough on the court, feelings of stress about going through the physical challenges, feelings of the unknown, feelings of wondering if college is even right for them, feelings of being an independent adult, feelings like how am I ever going to become as close to the returners as they are with one another and I could go on and on.

2.     The returners are full of stress:  They are worried about how the freshmen will adapt and how they can help them feel more at ease, they are uptight about who is going to earn playing time, they are still anxious about winning the physical challenges, they are so happy to be with each other again, they love to have food provided for them, they can’t wait to get to the retreat and I could go on and on.

3.     They eat A LOT (and they should)!  They love food.  But they always seem to always leave one left—one grape, one cookie in the bag, one serving of whatever we eat.  Nobody wants to eat the last one. 

4.     They are incredibly thankful for everything!

5.     They are a lot of fun!

Every year is very different as well.  The individuals that make up the freshmen class are combining with the returners and there is a unique personality to this group that will be one of a kind.  This year the biggest challenge the coaching staff is facing is figuring out what line up will end up being the best one.  We have about 8 different combinations that have their own strength but expose certain weaknesses-and they are all very different.  In 28 years of coaching I have never encountered so many options that are like comparing totally different fruits.  It is hard to distinquish which is the best because they are all so different.  It is a great problem to have.  We have a lot of talent and a lot of depth with multiple players who can succeed in different positions.  There has been an incredible work ethic from this 2016 group.  There has been little to no drama.  They are doing very well and I can’t wait to keep seeing their personality develop.

Our theme this year is “Mission Impossible”.  I have sensed more and more a sense of self-doubt and lack of inner confidence from athletes today.  I have worked with many athletes from other sports and have sensed the same issue.  So part of the theme is directed inward to each athlete as “Mission I’mPossible”.   Muhammad Ali has a quote about impossible and it goes like this:

“Impossible is just a big word thrown by small people who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.  Impossible is not a declaration.  It’s a dare.  Impossible is potential.  Impossible is temporary”.  Our bible verse is from John 15:5.  “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”.  So our total them is “Mission Impossible: The Vine Legacy”.  Our foundation of our program is God who is the vine and our legacy rests in Him.

Our hope is that you will be able to find a much clearer sense of what our program is all about by following along with our blog.  You will be getting entries from me as well as a player each week.  We will be sharing with you all the different things happening in our program that you can’t see or read from our stat sheets. 

Perspective from the Newbies!

Hi, this is Abby Moore and Ally Fea, two Freshmen volleyball players at Calvin. We are both from out of state (Abby from Indiana and Ally from Pennsylvania) and have been slowly adjusting to life in Michigan. This first week with the team has been filled with new experiences, excitement, nerves, vulnerability, and fear. Some of our fears coming in were confirmed, but we will be ok!

            It has been hard for both of us to adapt to our new home at Calvin. We miss our families, our pets, our friends, and definitely our beds! Getting into the routine of practice has been difficult, but encouraging teammates have eased the transition. It has been interesting living on our own and we have already been exposed to so many different lifestyles. For example, different vernaculars: cabin vs. cottage, sneakers vs. tennis shoes, etc.

We have enjoyed bonding with our new teammates, especially fellow freshmen. We feel so blessed to have staff at Calvin that care for the team. We appreciate the little things like cleaning the locker room and doing our practice laundry. We also have incredible coaches who have already taught us so much this week.

We are writing this from the team retreat, which has been super eye-opening and emotional! We have talked with our teammates about our struggles and fears, not only on the court but also in life. We’ve also had a lot of fun here! For example, last night we had a contest between each of the grades for making a three-minute reenactment of a movie. The highlight was watching Coach Warners get in the water and be the shark from Jaws.

It has been comforting to spend time with girls who share our faith. The homemade meals have been great also. We’ve grown closer to the team these last few days and we can’t wait for the season to start!