Quick story: “Welcome to coaching girls.”

Not only had I never played or coached volleyball, I had never coached girls.  No matter what you hear theses days, boys and girls are different animals. It took me a while to come to grips with that. 

I traveled with the varsity to South Bend Clay for a tournament and my first experience at a girls’ athletic event. Nothing was that much different through the warmups and pregame. 

Once the first first ball was served, that dramatically changed. I was sitting next to Coach Wilkerson (Sue) preparing to observe, to learn, and to basically stay out of the way. I had no idea how the match environment would unfold. I assumed that it would not be that much different than the basketball games that I had coached. That assumption quickly evaporated. 

As if coordinated (I found out later that it was indeed a coordinated event.) the players on the bench began doing cheers. Yes, planned cheers!  Foot stomping. Hand clapping. Leg slapping. Memorized chants.  I looked at Sue and said, “What the hell is that?”  After she stopped laughing, she looked at me and said, “Welcome to coaching girls.” (By the way, some of them were much better at cheering than actually playing the game.) 

It was at that instant I knew that I had to rethink my approach.