Flashback: 90 days ago

As seen on TV

When my lease abruptly ended (a story for another post) in June, I told myself that if I did not have a coaching position by July 15th, that I would stop applying for the fall season and focus on building my skills. About 90 days ago, I had an interview to work at Thiel College as the head women's volleyball coach. A tiny school in Greenville, Pennsylvania was not a place I initially considered, but I was encouraged to apply from my coaching and teaching communities and figured, why not? 

On July 14th, I was offered the position at Thiel. By July 24th, I had moved into temporary, on-campus housing. The next week I dove head first into my first collegiate head coaching position. Not a week in, I faced a huge hurdle (yup, another whole-post-worthy story) in bonding with the team. I addressed it and tried to put it behind us. 

A brand new position, intricacies of dealing with the schedule and materials left by the departing coaching staff, no assistant coach and I was determined, yet overwhelmed, to have a great first season. At any new job, you have to learn the way things work, get yourself logged in to all the technology, learn the programs you've never used or that have had recent updates, and navigate tons of information from sources in every direction. Coming into a coaching season with only three weeks to prep added a few extra challenges. 

I pushed myself to make comunity connections, set-up preseason schedules, coordinate community service, order gear, do one-on-one meetings with each team member, research options for an assistant coach, and start laying out frameworks for social media/fundraising/conditioning/study hours. I had to encourage potential recruits to hang in there for a bit until I could breathe enough to know what I was saying when I called them, meet the other coaches in my conference, and navigate the budget system. For the first week, I didn't have a log-in for the technology or keys to my office. At the end of week two, there was a pre-arranged joint fundraiser with the men's volleyball team - a great way to meet donors, alumni, and families, and quite a few hours of prep work and organization.

Gear sale at the golf outing

The end of week three brought preseason. A beast of its own for any head coach and I'd be navigating it predominantly alone; my not-even-technically-hired-yet, c/o 2023 alumnus assistant coach could only come to three of ten days of sessions. 

Flipping tractor tires is dirty work!

Two of the 2022 returning starters were out of commission and one of the two seniors had an emergent health concern just as preseason began. Down to 14 able-bodied players. Then no one was able to pass the baseline conditioning assessment. Every session had to be realigned to account for healing injuries or adapted to accommodate for enormous learning gaps (outside-hitters who had never practiced serve-receiving or being in the back row, for example). 

Six days into preseason, we closed our first double block of the year. It felt like we were making progress, albeit haphazardly. We did a team bonding night with henna that was marvelous. We hadn't had a rules meeting yet, one of the two community service opportunities completely fell apart, and tension over all the changes of a new coach/team/system were high. It wasn't perfect. I wasn't perfect. It was progressing. Time takes time. 

 

Classes started, we took a 9-hour road trip to open the season, had an emergency situation that - according to the counseling center staff - hadn't happened even once in the last dozen years (so they had no protocols). I decided that my team needed a lot more of my time and attention, and was going to make some major life changes to be there for them.

Twenty-four hours later, just seventeen days into the season, I got put on administrative leave. A parent accused me of creating a hostile environment that endangered the team. Ten days after that, I was cleared of the accusations. Nevertheless, it was no longer a good fit. I learned that a letter of appointment and a contract are two different things. I had a week to move off campus. I was asked to wait to talk to the team until the athletic director could schedule something. I haven't heard from him since.

There are things I would have done differently with more information and time. I'm proud of what I accomplished and that I was willing to tackle incredibly difficult tasks. Devastated by the circumstances - particularly being accused of harming young people - I've been staying with friends and letting my heart heal. I know, in my soul, that I am an educator and coach. How that will manifest itself moving forward, I don't know. I'm taking a pause to find out.

Keep coming back.