What We Look For in Tryouts and FEVA Culture

Part 2 with Coach Katia. In this episode, we discuss how tryouts work at FEVA and we talk about how important our club culture is to us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We are continuing last week's episode. This is part two. Hope you guys enjoy. Now that we've kind of gone, you know, we've kind of gone into the master coaching system. I kind of want to continue the conversation as far as um how we're always, you know, changing and evolving and how we're preparing for the future at all times. So we have a lot of season left, obviously, this year. Um, but behind the scenes, I mean, we are always thinking about the next year. And we're literally we're literally start talking about the next year before the season's even started sometimes. Before the year starts. Yeah. So, you know, we're already obviously tournaments. I've already kind of laid out a really tentative, you know, tournament schedule and where we're thinking about going. You know, they're not all out yet, but from what we know, we already kind of start to lay it out. Um, and of course, now we're working on tryouts. Now we're kind of in that beginning stage of tryouts. Um, and you know, tryouts are so much work, so stressful and takes so much preparation. It does, it's not as easy. I remember when you know when I was again when I was a parent, it was like you just throw some coaches in there and do some drills, and that's it. It's work we've we have tweaked our tryouts every single year, and we continue we're continuing to tweak it um mainly just because we want to obviously have it run smoothly, but yeah, be able to better evaluate the talent. That's the hardest thing to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Replacement is the hardest thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, and I think you know, kind of like how we, you know, we talked about how we our training is obviously very unique. I think our tryouts are kind of unique as well. Um, so kind of to start it off, you know, we have four levels of team, right? We have you know, elite is our is our top level, national, regional, and we don't have any local this year, but it wasn't, you know, we it is we have in the past, and we and we would like to in the next year, yes. And and basically each level, you know, obviously it's you know, it is skill level to a point, but it's it's mainly the difference is what you get, correct?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

I mean that that is exactly what parents need to understand. Just because you're a national team does not mean that you're going out to compete with the best in the nation, right? It is what you get.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yeah, so you why don't you explain what each is so so there's there's multiple, this is the way I there's multiple teams, you know, depending on the age group and what we have come in, but there could be multiple, multiple elite teams, multiple national teams, multiple regional teams, multiple local teams. Um, so it just depends. And one thing we do in tryouts, and this is another thing that was had a little bit of pushback for me because I didn't think parents would go for it, but it has honestly become one of the I think the most fair and best things we do is we don't necessarily put all the kids on a specific team. So we put them in to the level. So we'll say, you know, you 30 kids are national, you 25 kids or 20 kids are elite in their positions.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

It's not like we get right, all right, 20 out of 30 are DS's and liberos. No, right. We have to go by the setters, we have six to eight middles, we group down, yes, within their position. So correct, you know, and level of play, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

So you know you know, obviously, I think for a lot of parents, you know, at least what I thought was going to be the issue is you're gonna start, you're gonna kind of go into the season not knowing what team you're gonna be on, you know. And however, I mean, I'll say from my perspective, what I what I like about it is it's fair. So, in other words, everybody can have a great tryout, correct? I mean, we've had or a terrible shot. We've had kids that have come in and just lit it up at tryouts and ended up, you know, they get into practice, you're like, oh my gosh, not they're not, they're not at this level, or vice versa. Happens all the time all the time.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yeah, and so two, three hours is not enough to evaluate every child.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

And we and we've had 60 kids in the gym for one age group at a time. You know what I mean? Like, how do you possibly do that? So, yeah, I mean, I think that that's that's for me the benefit as I see it. I mean, am I correct? Or what would you say is the biggest benefit in doing it that way?

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Well, one of the things is that uh obviously one of the things that parents don't understand is it's very easy to pinpoint who the best kid in the gym is. It's very easy to pinpoint who the most beginner kid in the gym is. That that's the easy part. But what happens with the five teams in the middle? Right. That's the hardest part in the world because you don't know what their behavior is like, their attitude, their grit, their hustle, their leadership, their personality, their mental stability, their emotional uh we don't know all that. And we have to see that. So I I think that this is the best way to do it because we do do we try you for a 20-yard dash, we max, we measure your jump, your block jump, and your regular approach jump, your height, and we measure your uh three uh two-step jump forward. Yeah. Which tells you really what your athleticism is. Yeah, you know, if I have a kid that comes into the gym and touches 10 feet, well, you know what, I'm gonna be able to teach you to be a middle blocker. You know what I mean? If you're 14 or 15, that kind of that kind of that kind of gives you a little bit of of of idea. Yeah, so that kind of sometimes you just don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

So that kind of brings you are until it comes to tryouts. Yeah. So that kind of brings me to my question is for you two, what do you what are you looking for in a tryout? When a girl's trying, like to me, when a what exactly is the biggest thing and the biggest couple things you're looking for?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

It all depends on the level. Okay. For me, it depends on the level. Obviously, you know, I I I see all the kids and I have a part in in choosing all the teams, but I don't make the last the ultimate choice when it comes to coaches picking between two setters or two Liberos or two middles. They are going to, I'm gonna give my opinion, I'm gonna set them in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. You can pick, this is where you are. But they're gonna every coach likes something. Yeah, right. Every coach has a a preference in something. I one of the things that I I strongly look for is effort. If I do not see a kid give effort, even if the ball wasn't possible, even if the ball wasn't out of reach, you'll never know unless you try. I tell that to my kids all the time. I said, How do you know you couldn't get to that ball if you all you did was turn your head? Yeah, you know, you get show me your effort and I will show you my respect for you. It's okay that you made the error. We're not perfect, but physical errors are going to happen. However, effort is what I need to see that you have. Grip. And so a good attitude, effort, and of course, I only coach the top team, so I do have to look at skill. But if I have two kids that have the same amount of skill, and one has is vocal, is positive, is encouraging their teammate, is constantly talking. That's the kid I want on my team. I need a leader, I need someone that's gonna give me positive energy. There are some kids that that just don't bring any positive energy, right? And it's unfortunate because they have the talent physically, but they're not going to bring anything positive to the team. Yeah, they will drain that team from that positive energy, and it's something that, in my opinion, is the hardest thing for kids to overcome. We can all learn skill, but our personality is who we are. So it's very difficult to change that.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

And as a coach, you can't coach that. Right. That's in your blood, that's who you are, right? And it's it's gonna at the end of the day, it's gonna be a you thing. It's what they're what you want to bring to the team energy-wise, right? And another thing we would look at in tryouts is is is athleticism. Yeah. See what they can do, right? But at the end of the day, you can do XYZ, but if the other person can do XYZ, but they're bringing more positivity and you're not. Yeah. That's that's who you're gonna choose at the end of the day. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

So you're only better as your weakest leg. Correct. Is what I like. And I I've played beach volleyball for a very long time as well. After I played collegiate, I played beach volleyball. And we won based on who our weak. There's only two of us.

SPEAKER_05 8:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

The weaker player is gonna get served every single time. Uh that's just a reality. So when I played with a big, you know, blocker. Well, who's getting served? Me. I better bring it on, I better have my shots and better do all that. And so that's what you have to overcome by having something different. Positive, energy, reading, smart, you know, all those things.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

So yeah. And I always tell my son, too, as far as you know, when he's he does his, when he's playing, I'm always saying, You've got to be coachable. And I think a lot of people, and I think, you know, I I say this and he's like, I have a great attitude. I go, that doesn't necessarily being uncoachable doesn't necessarily mean you have a bad attitude, but you've got to be able to apply. If a coach tells you, it gives you an instruction, you've got to be able to go out and do it.

unknown 9:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

We we have some kids that have great attitudes, but when you've told them a thousand times the same things, they just can't do it. So and and you don't know if they're not willing to do it, or you have to be able to or you have to be able to to understand are they not physically capable of doing it, even though we've done the same drill over and over and over again, or are they not willing to do it? Right.

SPEAKER_05 9:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

But either way, if you're not physically capable or not willing to do it, it's hard to move them up the ranks. Yeah. So coachability is is very important. Have you ever had a girl roll your eyes when roll their eyes at you when you've given them an instruction? Too many times. Too many times. You know, when when a kid, when you give them an instruction, it's a very simple direct instruction, and they completely dismiss you, roll their eyes and go back to doing the exact same thing. Yeah, that kid's not gonna be on my yeah. Look at uh any top programming college. And I don't mean D1, it could be D two, N A I A, D three, any top those kids have amazing attitudes. When do you go to a UT game and see anybody with a bad attitude that's not cheering or has a frown on their face? It doesn't exist. Yeah, it just doesn't exist, yeah, and that's what the coaches look for. Yeah, so you have to keep that in mind. Um, and and again, not all these kids are gonna go to college, and that's okay. Right, you can play club for fun, but if you have the talent and you have the physical ability and you want to play even in club at a higher level, you do have to have the attitude to go along with it.

SPEAKER_05 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Well, and you can still show your competitive bone whether you're gonna go to college or not to play.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

And then another thing is, you know, you obviously the kids who are already part of our club, they're gonna try out next year. I think they it could be an advantage to them if they have a great attitude and you've seen them improve. Absolutely. But it can also be very much against them if they've displayed a poor attitude or you know And and that's what I always try to tell them.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

I said, every time you're in the gym, it's a try-out.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Every time you're at a practice, it's a try-out. If I as a club director or your coach as your coach has to talk to you about your attitude, that's part of your tryout. Yeah. It coaches are not gonna forget about that when they're picking their teams in the future. Yeah. Um you know, uh, we we had a girl, and I'm gonna give a shout out. Uh, this is to you, Catherine. Okay. I want to tell you right now. Her mom came to me at the beginning of the season and said, Uh, how can she get onto an elite team? And I told her, Well, she's gonna do this and this and this and this and that. Okay, Catherine is a middle hitter and she's worked really hard. And she is showing all those things that we told her that she needed to work on. Yeah, her tryout has been all year. She has earned that spot. Even if Catherine didn't have a great tryout, we've seen her tryout for eight months. Yeah. We know where we're placing Catherine because of what she has accomplished. So those are things to keep in mind. What you do every day in the gym, what you do every day at a tournament, what you show your coaches is your tryout for every volleyball clinic, every effort, every tournament, every practice.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Well, I'm just saying going through season, like every practice is showing your coach that they can trust you to get yourself into playing a position or or the amount of rotations they're gonna be playing in a tournament. Yeah, I think girls think we're only judging our like lineup based on how they're playing in that tournament. No, a lot of it comes from the trust that we see in what you're doing during practice. Exactly. Yeah, you know? So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Positive attitude i is really one of the things. People say it all the time. Now now again, it's it's easier to say than being done. And and let's stay realistic. I've had many parents say she works really hard, she has a wonderful attitude. Absolutely, she does, but you have to put things in perspective. Right. Yeah, she can't make a one seam as a hitter when you're reaching eight five. Yeah. You know, and and and so I I try to always be as realistic as possible. She does, and she will make the best team within her physical ability. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

And I think that's, you know, for myself personally, tryouts are my least favorite part of the season. I hate them. I don't I don't like it. And you know, probably for different reasons, but for me, you know, I grow it, you know, you obviously grow a connection to these girls and these families. And we love these kids. And we love it. We love these kids, we love these families, and the one, you know, you know you're gonna lose.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Can we have a uh a one scene with 45 people on it? I know.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

But you know, I I hate it because I love it, because some of them deserve the next person. That would be a few issues we might create with that. I'm just kidding. Yeah, but I mean, it it's it's always sad for me to lose those kids. And I know that tryouts, while you're gonna have a bunch of really happy kids, you're also gonna have a ton of disappointed kids.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

When have we ever had a tryout whether not have cried? Yeah, there's always crying.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

And I get it because you know, and and like one of the it's the whole thing that we always try to do is put the girls on a team of like level. And one of the and I always when I get up, you know, obviously I get a lot of phone calls, and I'll kind of, you know, who you know, questions about how club starts, and that's one of the things I always tell them is with a bigger club like us, one of the biggest advantages that I see is let's say you're a U-15. We have seven U-15 teams. So what does that mean? We have a huge variation in levels.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

You're not gonna be on a team where somebody you've got half a team at one level and half a team on a level. You're gonna be on a team with all players that are at your level.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

We're not we're not splitting up our best players into multiple teams.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

I want people to know that we're putting the best players on our best teams, and I think that that's you you see some clubs where you only have one team or two teams and you have such a difference in skill level. Yeah. Well, here you're gonna be able to play with all kids that are at your skill level, yeah, you know, and compete for playing position.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

And I always say, like, you don't want your kid to be by a mile the best player or by a mile the worst player. It does either way is not beneficial to you. And one thing about us um is we do not play politics at Florida Elite Volleyball Academy. We do not play politics. It is, you know, I've been a part of a club. I don't even think we know what politics is. I know. I've been a part of the club.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

How many times have you heard well? We've been loyal, and I said, and and we love you for it, but I've got to place your kid on the right team. Right. Because what happens when your child does not play? Yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

I think how can I best for the kidify that? Yeah. Well, and you know, I my goal, yeah, but yeah. My my daughter's played on a on a club where um you make the ones team at U13, you're gonna be on the ones on 14s, 15s, 16. And the reasoning is, well, I don't want them to leave. Meanwhile, you've got a kid who's worked their butt off on the twos that deserves to be on the ones that is not given the opportunity that they deserve. And that's not fair.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

You know, it's tough. It's funny that you say that because I'm gonna use Haley Andreas as an example right now, is that she was on my threes teams, on their teams, and I kid you not, that season didn't I go up to you and said, She's gonna be on your ones team one day. She's gonna be on your ones team one day. And what did she do? She put a huge aspect to her 14s team right now.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

And and every kid develops at different stages and has different capabilities.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Yeah, I always say everybody's got their, you know, again, I'm talking about everybody's got their ceiling. Everybody's got a ceiling. And everybody, like I tell my son, you're never gonna be LeBron James. No, never, it doesn't matter. Yeah, you can be, yeah, LeBron James is not LeBron James. You know, there's certain people that are just they there's a ceiling that you have, and your job is just to hit that ceiling. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

And that's all you if you're gonna have fun, enjoy it, and live it.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Yeah, if you hit that, if you hit that ceiling, you should be happy. That's been a success. That's been your career, has been a success.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

At the end of the day, just being an athlete itself is hard to do, right? Like, and I and I think people forget that. And sometimes you know, you you wish and and you want something else for that individual that might not be for them. Yeah, and that's okay. And again, there's something there we have that place for that person.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

So it we have to understand that volleyball is not one of those sports that you just play in high school and then you never play again. Right. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna say I'm old, okay, I'm not gonna tell you my age, but I've played volleyball high school, college, and then after college, I went to adult nationals, I've played beach volleyball. I have two beach volleyball courts in my backyard. I have played volleyball my whole life and it has been my pride and joy. And so even when now I'm not fast, definitely not strong. Can I jump more than five inches? Probably not, but I still enjoy playing volleyball. And she still beats some of the younggies, you know, and so it's just fun, it's my life, and I'm so grateful to the sport because it continues to give me, you know, joy, even at my old age. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

So and that and that's that's you know, for me, that's the advice that I the the number one advice I can give parents, particularly when it comes to tryouts, is it's I know we all want to make, you know, team X. We want to be on the top team. We want to be, you know, we want to get a bid and we want all that. And that's that's all great. You should be you should definitely strive for that. It's okay because a lot of times you're gonna have more fun and grow more on a team at your level. I I I talked to, you know, I was definitely.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

How many times, Davis, have we lost kids that didn't make the ones team from one year to the other because they made the twos? They go to another club, make their ones, and our threes beat them. Yeah, we beat them, yeah. So ones teams across the board are not the same. Yeah. Period.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

And that's the thing is if you're gonna, you know, you can still go on a twos and threes. And again, our twos and threes, I'm so proud of how I mean they've they've been getting better each and every year.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

But I mean, this year, like I mean, Michael's won, I think, three tournaments. My advice is find a team that your daughter's skill level is matched by her teammates, and she's gonna play.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah, and you're not because I always say I always say everybody's gonna play. Everybody wants to compete in July, you know, when tryouts are in July. Everybody, oh, I want to compete. We can compete, we're gonna win that position. But then in January, it's it's not the same thing. Now it's why is my why is my daughter not playing? You know, I I I told my my son's club director, like, look, I don't care what team you put him on, I just want him to play. I'm if I'm gonna come and spend this money and spend my time to come to these tournaments, I am not trying to watch other people's kids play. Yeah, just I mean, it's just put them on a team that they can play. And they're gonna be, and and it's and they're gonna be nobody, we don't have anybody on our fours who is belongs on our wants. I mean, it's just being realistic. I mean, it's we're we may not be 100% perfect, and that's one thing kind of going back to the the trials we didn't discuss is you know, we we put them in that that bucket of national, and then we'll have a placement day where we'll eventually decide on what team.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

So, yeah, so let me explain that for the parents. When you come to tryouts, when you register at tryouts, you're gonna register. Are you trying out for an elite, a national, a regional, or a local team? You'll have that option on your tryout list. Yeah, that's a new thing. That's a new thing for the team. That's a new thing. And then based on that, you're gonna get a time slot where you are going to try out. Um, that of course does not mean that you're going to make exactly that team because we will have parents who will want to try out for an elite team, but then be in the gym and see that obviously this is not the level of their daughter. Okay, and then that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

And that's okay. And I'm gonna defend them and for a lot of people, especially if you've never played club before, you have no idea. You can be the star of YMCA, you know, volleyball and and legitimately be the star and then walk into us and make our regional.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Or yes, and then struggle to make the regional from another state and they don't do it this way, and they come in and they're thinking like elite means whatever it does.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

But the reason behind that is because last year at Tryouts, and again, we grew and we learned. Yeah, there were many kids that we felt should be at a regional level. Right. Because they still need that basis, they still need all those things of development that a kid at that age needs. However, they were not happy. Happy with development that they needed to be on a national team. So they left. Great kids, great families that left made a national team at another club. Now, is that national team better than our two or three or four or five national teams that we have? No. But they went because they did not get the quote unquote national team. So what we are going to do is we are going to give parents what they are looking for. But that does not mean they're going to be on a team with kids that are better than their kids. This is what you get for national. You get nine teams, you get nine tournaments, you get one out of state, you get three practices a week. You go from this time to this time. Now within our national kids, we are going to make those teams. Right. Based on the positions that we have.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Right. And it's usually usually going to be done at that placement day, which will take place exactly.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

So all these kids make it based on the positions, they accept it. And then we are going to have a placement. We'll probably have three days where they come in where they play only for two hours within their teams. And those coaches will and we have a pretty good idea that after the tryout, we've placed them in team, you know, national for Coach Rihanna, Coach Elise, Coach Brittany. They're all in their teams. However, during those placements, there's going to be tweaks. And we make sure that okay, ah, this person needs to go down. This person needs to go up. We can't switch them from elite to national or national to regional. But within national, they will make the team that they best fit and we'll have some tweaks. I would say we're about 90% accurate in tryouts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

It's taking it's taking a little while. I mean, it wasn't like that.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

We we we're very accurate, 90%. But during placements, I would say if you had 50 kids, we're gonna move about seven or eight of those kids and tweak it and move them up or down. Yeah, and then that has avoided so many placement changes because we'll get into a practice and a coach will come to me and say, Coach, I need that girl from the fours. Why is she not on my twos?

SPEAKER_05 24:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Or why like I don't know, you know, we we miss that kid. We're not perfect.

SPEAKER_05 24:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

So it has avoided that. Those three placement days will be letting them play. Not to mention, you got high school, yeah, you've got middle school, you've got mini club. They get better. Some kids get so much better within that time frame.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Yeah, and then on top of that, you have kids that you know are out of town during tryouts or haven't moved here yet. So you've got, you know, you evaluate in July, then you've got a kid that comes to an open gym or something in August. You don't know until you see him in a placement day, you know, you don't know. And then another thing we do that from an admin perspective drives me nuts, but it's the right thing to do is that we will also change teams within a season. You know, if we get in the practices get started and there's just someone who's just we've still messed up on, you know, some people can't come to the placement day or you know, whatever how or some someone joins after a placement day, we will do our very best to make that adjustment to put them on the proper team.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

I mean, ultimately you are paying for a club experience to play with kids of your same level, of your same skill level, so you can compete at that level.

SPEAKER_05 25:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

And so it's not fair to demote or promote or not demote or promote a kid that is not at that level.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

And it goes both ways. We move kids up, we move kids down.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Yeah, yeah. So again, it it's it's an admin nightmare sometimes. It is an admin nightmare. But but it's it's the right thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

And they're tough conversations sometimes with the parents.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yeah, but I mean, I will say the whole point in all this, you know, sometimes I'll be like, oh my gosh, can we just leave this? We just not ruffle feathers.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

And but in how many conversations, Davis, yeah, have we try to move a child down, but the parent refuses and it backfires. Yeah, yeah. On the parents. Yeah. Because we ask, please, please trust us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

But they don't trust us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

But when they do, and they do sometimes, and sometimes the next year they've come to me and be like, whatever you say, I'm just gonna go to the team that you put you put me on. Because we we do have the best. We do what what do we as a club have to gain by putting a child on the wrong club on the wrong team? And that's what I I guess you have to believe who we are.

SPEAKER_05 26:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

What do we gain by putting a great player on a lower level team or a not so great player on a higher level team? Nothing. Yeah. We have to do the best that we can for placement.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

100%. So absolutely. All right, so now that we've kind of you know we've gone over, you know, some of the master coaching and the tryouts. Um, the last thing I kind of want to talk about with Cotty is is a word that we use all the time. It is is one of the words that we use from the very beginning of when we started FIVA.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Let me hear it. I know what it is.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Culture. Yes. We are we are all about our culture. Um it's very, very important to us.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

It's who we are.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yeah. I mean it's what FIVA is. It is. I mean, we want to have a certain yeah, a certain culture, for lack of a better word.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Well, I think every business does, right? Google has a culture, Amazon has a culture, um, Walmart has a culture. Everything has a culture. Yeah. And and you either love it or it's just not your fit.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Yeah. Yeah. And and I believe for us, I mean for me, the biggest the way I would describe our culture is family. And we are, and again, we're a rather large club. I mean, I think we're, you know, we have a lot of a lot of teens, but I still think that we we keep that family atmosphere and kind of come to way backtrack to the master coaching. One of the things that I didn't mention that I love about it is the girls actually, because they practice together, they know each other. They know each other. And if you notice from the last two years versus this year, uh I'm sorry, the last the before two years ago versus the last year and this year, you see more girls cheering on other teams than we used to see. Yeah. And I think that's a that's a direct result of of that master coaching, but also the culture that we we are. You know, there's no um, you know, we've you know, again, my daughter's been in a club where the ones girls think they're better than the twos girls. So they don't really want to. They practice together now. They practice together, they're friends, they like each other, and and they're you know, sometimes you might have you know, a girl in the ones get hurt. Let's bring up a girl in the two to help with this tournament because you need a you know, you need that extra player. Um, and they all know each other, and they just we we we all try to make this as a family, yeah. You know, and I think that's I I think that's really, really important and really special that we do. Um, that I don't think even in some smaller clubs, I don't think that's a part. I'm not I don't know everybody, but I'm pretty close. But you know every single person in the club. I mean, you know every single kid, and it is I mean, and it's not because you have to. I mean, you don't we don't have to know everybody, we don't have to you want to.

SPEAKER_02 29:14

The only thing that messes me up is the parents. Sometimes I can't. I can't you can't place the hoose. I can't place I know the name of the parent, but I don't know the parent's face.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah, you know, me, I'm very like, I'm bad with names. I remember faces, but I'm bad with names. And I'd be like, hey Katia, this parent said XYZ to me today. Nothing negative, just yeah, speaking to me. And I talk to them and I love them and they're amazing. Well, whose parent is that? She's like, oh, that's the yada yada yada. And I'm like, how do you know this?

SPEAKER_00 29:52

I know. Well, you know, um, Arden's mom, Arden is on Cadia's 15s. Um, she has a daughter that goes to another club, and so I'm I left, I left one court and she was sitting on a court that I, you know, I look at the court and it's obviously neither FIFA team is playing, and the mom was like, Hey Davis, and I was like, Hey, and like I obviously I knew, yeah, but I was like, I couldn't figure and I walked about 10 steps and I wanted so bad to turn around and be like, Okay, I know who you are, but it didn't be like Arvin came to me and I was like longtime no see, and she's like, Coach is like the other day.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

I was like, No, I know that, but I'm just saying, we we when actually in Chicago because she was there with her little girl, and I saw her, she was like, her hair looked all pretty, but she was like so different. Art and your hair is so pretty.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

It was just because I always see them all sweaty and you know what I mean. But I think when I said long time no see, I don't think she understood that. Like, I know I saw you the other day, but you're just not in your regular people here.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

But she looked at me, she's like, And she came to all those things games, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

She was like this, she goes, Coach, you saw me the other day. I was like, It's not the same. Like, dude, I know. It's like you're two different people. So when I saw her practice on Tuesday, I was like, Hey, long time no see. She was just she was looking at me like, does she know? It's an old joke, yeah. It's an old old person.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

I'm an old person, so and I try to explain that to her, but you know, I I did give her a little bit of you know, but I think that our culture is who we are, you know, it it it is who we are, and I I think the coaches can see it, they can sense that they're they're a family, and yeah, I think the parents know that as well. One of the things is a part of our culture that I think is very important is you, me, and Fernando are accessible at all times. Absolutely. You you don't you how many club directors answer your texts within minutes, answer your emails within that day? Yeah, pick up the phone. How about you see them? Today we were at Field House, Fernando and I there till the very last game. I was there yesterday until the very last game. We are at every single tournament, we are accessible. You can talk to us, you can ask us questions. Yeah. Um, I I get parents to to text me all the time, you know, what's this, what's that? It's just random questions. Let me ask you this. What do you think? What do you think about this? You know, and and always we are accessible.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Yeah, yeah. And and I and I think, I mean, I always feel like we kind of like the girls, like everybody has a ceiling. We have a ceiling, but we as far as what we can do, but we max them out, maximize what we can do. I mean, there's we work as absolutely hard as we possibly can. Now, there are times where we have to turn it off and say, hey, you know, I'm gonna go watch my daughter graduate college, and I'm not gonna answer. But that's those are very few and far between. And I think that we no nobody we it's one thing that I'm learning, but I still can't accept is you can't make everybody happy. Our culture, our culture is not for everybody, our club is not for everybody. Well, nobody's culture, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Nobody's culture, you will never make everybody happy. But I will say we do a darn good job. Um, and I have some great statistics to prove that in you know, as far as the majority. Yeah, because there's no way you can make everybody happy. No, there's no way.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Yeah, we were talking the other day about, or today actually, about the number of like phone calls you've had from parents.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

So, you know, one one of the things um I am the person who talks to parents regarding playing time or problems on a team, so forth.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

I'm gonna interject real fast. Remember how we were talking a few episodes about if we had a if we had a if we had a poll of who's your favorite director, like if you had to rank your directors one, two, three, four, I guarantee you Katia would be either one or four for every single parent or every single player because she it's because she's the one who has to deal with all the tough stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Yeah. I have to um give it to Katia because like the men in this three of you who are in the director club love to send everything to Katia. And Katia does an amazing job. She does, she does. I give her full credit, and you know, and she's not ugly about it, she's she speaks the truth, she gives you facts.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Well, direct is not the way of the world now, correct? So it it is hard for a lot of us. But she's gotten better. She has gotten better.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

I want to let people know when Katia is speaking, she is giving you factual information. Yeah, she would not say it if there was nothing to back up what she was trying to say, right? And not everyone agrees the way how people approach things. That's anyone, that's me, that's you, that's Davis, that's Fernando, that's any coach in this world, anyone that's given instructions, right? But she does a beautiful job explaining why, when, yeah, if or what. Like it does not matter. And she can do it for every single team in our club. Yeah, it's she's not saying it based off of what the coach is saying, she is saying it based off her observation, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:03

And that's one of the things about culture, like for my for me, my coaches are here to coach, right? Yeah, I need to deal with all the excess stuff. And um it is very difficult uh for a play a coach to have to deal with problems on their team. So I really do like to take on all those parent conversations. Um at the end of the day, you're gonna love me if you don't have any issues. But if you're going to have a lot of issues on, you know, for whatever reason, and and our issues go from not enough posts on social media to, you know, the coach hit this ball too hard at my daughter, to, you know, I I'm done with this team and I walked out of a tournament. Like literally, that's how wide our issues are. And I have to deal with all of them. Yeah. And so um, I will say, what do we got? How many players do we have in the club?

SPEAKER_00 36:02

We're well, I think in the beginning we were at like I think 360 at one point was the last that I counted. We may have, you know, we've added some, lost some, but I we're in that 350 to 360.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

So you're looking at 350 to 360. This year, due to our master coaching schedule, due to the fact that I'm the one that deals with most of those, we have had 14 parent meetings, whether they be on the phone or in person. That's less than three percent. So if if you say and these are complaints, like serious serious meetings where I'm gonna have to like me, you and Fernando have had to sit in a meeting, a conversation with me and the coach and the parent or the player um asking a parent to come in. We have had 14 meetings. And most of them were not a big deal. I would say maybe half of them were a big deal. Yeah, and we've had a conversation here and there, hey, how can my daughter improve? She really wants to be this, she wants to be that. Those are simple conversations. But I have to give it to the parents. If 97% of our parents are not having these conversations, yeah. We have the most amazing parents in this club. Yeah, I have 14 meetings. 14. Yeah.

unknown 37:23

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

That's not it.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

That's not a lot.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

I mean, in the years in the past when we did not have this master coaching system, I had a lot more. Now I get texts here and there after a tournament, which I always try to remind people there's a 24-hour rule. We still don't quite understand what that rule means because I still get texts even though there was a 24-hour rule. I'm like, just because you send me in text and say, don't respond till Monday. The 24-hour rule is the worst thing you can do.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Because let me tell you something, I'm gonna forget about the text. I'm gonna open it, I'm gonna read it, say, okay, I'll wait till Monday. And then it's totally missing the point on the Friday. Hey coach, are we gonna sit down and talk?

SPEAKER_02 38:05

And I'm like, but however, a lot of there's a lot of questions. I I do get parent phone calls, but they're very at least from my in in from my view about other teams, it's they're considerate, they need information, they need to understand why. Why, why does my player get taken out here? Why does my player only go through rotations here? Why does my player and a lot of times when you understand when you explain it to the parents, they understand. Right. Yeah. And it has been really a blessing to do that.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

But we don't also people that are new to the sport, right? Yeah, they they compare the sport to other sports. Yeah. And we're not other sports. We're not going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

You can't compare soccer in minutes to rotations on volleyball. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

But you we don't have the complaint. I think the point is, you know, we don't have complaints about my practices aren't run well. My coach isn't teaching them. My coach is not teaching my daughter's not, I mean, you know, it's generally speaking.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Yeah. 99% of complaints are my daughter is not playing.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

As much as I feel my daughter should be playing.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

My daughter's a middle. Why does she come out of the game? Things like that.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

You know, so so a lot of times, and and unfortunately, I think that that's gonna be the issue with every sport in every club in the whole entire nation, correct? Is there ever what what if you asked every director in the whole entire nation of every sport, what is the number one complaint from parents? Let me and let me tell you something.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

I know a lot of sports, right? I don't know soccer. So if my daughter goes and plays soccer, I'm gonna be like, I'm clueless.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

You need to make her play soccer, it's great for footwork.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Yeah, I all my three. I told Stefan, or actually, I told my dad this today. My daughter's gonna play soccer. It's good for footwork, coordination, all of that. I should have put my kids.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

I should have put I should have put Kylie in soccer.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

But let me tell you something. There's no way I can ever question the coach. You just cheer. Yeah. I'm gonna have to be her regular because let me tell you something. I have I'm like, I could kick a ball, I could kick a ball hard, I could be like a little goalie over here for the life of me. I don't know the dang game to save my life. Like, I don't, and I'm not gonna go disrespect right a coach or anything and be like, why is my daughter not playing? Like, while meanwhile, like Leilani's the worst one on the court, or not even a court, but the field. Yeah, but that's look at me talking about it.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Again, that's culture. Yeah, you know what I mean? I think that in in hindsight, if I had to look at it, and sometimes you know, I have a conversation, I'm like, you know, God, it's tough. Yeah, it's tough because A, we we really do care about these kids, but it's difficult because you're trying to tell a parent that we love your kid. Correct. It is not personal. Correct. Please believe me, it is not personal. There is no coach here that has it out for your child. It's just uh based on performance or how do we make the team better, or what we're trying to do. But I think that parents, like if you if you think about it, right? If n only three percent of parents have had an actual meeting, we've gotta be doing something, right? We've gotta be doing something, right? Yeah, and we and even with those meetings that I've had, I'm gonna continue to try to make those relationships better. Because if you think about it, a parent feels that way because their daughter feels that way. Your daughter is the most important thing in the world. Yeah, you know, so they're emotional, yeah. We're practical, yeah. But we have to be able to put ourselves in that those shoes.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

It's funny that you say that. Like I walk around, I get to go see other teams. When I was in Chicago, you know, Stefan walked around.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

And it's how many kids did you see crying in Chicago? A ton a ton a ton. I would walk in the bathroom and there's the mom and a daughter crying.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

You know, but I also have the moments of being able to sit out of court and hearing the great positive things about our club. And I tell, you know, Stefan comes with me or whatever, or I have the conversations, and some of these coaches probably know me better than I know their children, right? Or their team. And that happens when you're so invested in your own team and whatever, you might not be on the same days, whatever. But I tell Slavon, I was like, even though I'm done, I'm gonna go watch XYZ play. I want to, I want to put my foot sit on each other's benches. We sit on the channel. That's a culture.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

That is a culture. I mean, there's I I'm so I mean, I could be mistaken. No dispute if I'm wrong and there's another club that does it like we do, I apologize. I have never seen her, and and again, you can't qualifiers, you can't count qualifiers because you have to be on the roster. But if you like this weekend at Winterhaven, I mean, there was the ref, you know, one of the refs, you know, he called he calls me over, he's like, So uh let me just ask you like uh how many coaches are on your roster? And I look and I go, seven. And he smiled and I was like, maybe eight. It's not if they're if this so and so's game is finished. I've never support each other. I don't see another club. And these coaches, they don't get paid extra, they don't have to do it. We don't tell them to do it. I've never, I've never told, I've never heard you tell a coach you need to come sit on so-and-so's bench. They just do it because they want to, they want to help the kids, they want to, you know, they're they're you know, coaches are friends with each other, and that is each other, we give each other a hug.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

Hey, how did your club team do? It's always like this.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

So it's like this Coach Michael. I love Coach Michael, but I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm very jealous of Coach Michael because when I walk in the gym, this happened the other day. I walk into Brandon Academy, the girls are like, Davis, everybody's excited. Coach Michael walks in five minutes after me, and he got more Coach Michaels than I got Davis, and I was upset. People love Coach Michael because he's there, he goes on their bench, he talks to them, he helps him, he helps coach.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

them that is a culture thing I taste some salt like what is she doing yeah yeah I know I am jealous I am I am jealous but I love it at the same point in time because that is but that's it's not just it's not just Coach Michael it's just ever it's every single and we all participate in clinics they all see everybody there's not one coach that only takes care of their team and that's that's one of the things you know I don't and I don't know really how do other clubs do it for pay and missing practices and coverage I don't even know we we post it who can cover me because life happens yeah right we miss we miss work how can we not sometimes miss a practice yeah and we all cover we all know our kids we know everybody we're not afraid to give feedback and help with the other teams and that's what makes it that we all know each other and and just like I mean I'm I'm at one for it like I'm I'm coaching a top team and I'm like hey Cadia I'm gonna be like five ten minutes late I'm running later we got it we got it we got it right that's the perks of our master coaching right yeah if your head coach is not there guess what we have a master coach there that's gonna help or if not like it's if if I know I'm missing a full on practice it's like hey Danny can you come or Brittany or Michaela Cadia Fernando you know Courtney Alexis anyone we at the end of the day we we created this culture that the minute honestly we're fighting to cover each other's practices we put in the chat recently happy birthday when somebody we post our our kids pictures right Courtney just posted a cute little cabin of Kennedy right so that's we're part of each other's families.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

Coach Michael has brought his kids a couple of times to practices like Elisa's birthday is April 25th so I'm I'm waiting for their birthday shout outs so what I'm saying is we do support each other and we are a part of each other's lives but that makes us care about who we have and when when I have hey I can't you know I have tons of coaches Cody I'm having problems with this lineup Cody I'm having problems with this how do I get this kid to stop doing this how do I get this you know I mean there's always backup there's always reinforcements there's always resources that you can tap into you know we're two top top coaches here and I even said this to you in Chicago I look for your feedback and I'm not afraid to I'm I'm not afraid to say hey Katia I need your advice you cannot grow if you cannot take feedback right you can't and and and she looks at me she's like you did everything if at that moment if I'm talking to her about a certain situation she's not afraid to like hey you did everything you could or she's not afraid to say hey you could possibly think about this situation.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

And if I'm on the bench I'm gonna tell her you could think about this.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

This is what's happening here we give it and and she's got the ultimate say but we're not afraid to give that opinion and and we're not afraid to when a coach is doing that to make them feel like they're better than us it's it's just we all have different coaching styles. And at the end of the day we're gonna be successful because we can all do that.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

And and unlike other clubs I've heard um we don't we don't have our top coaches stay in the top hotels and our bottom coaches stay in different hotels or our top coaches go on this you know first class flight while our bottom coaches are riding the train and we don't everybody's treated the same everybody's I don't put I don't put you contrary to what people will say I don't put you on a flight that I'm not gonna go on the same I don't know I saw I saw Michaela have to walk off a plane we're not doing this we're not doing this I will say this so one of the things you know parents are always and I hear this all the time and and I I parents always say oh well this is a money thing or it's a money grab.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

There are so many things that we add money grab money grab okay we add so many things that are not included in the tuition. So for example we add an extra scrimmage at the beginning of the year we don't charge for that yeah we add it it's a whole day we pay coaches we pay travel we pay our time we do the everything that we have to do we don't charge more for it we've lost sunshine but we've added other tournaments we didn't charge because we added another tournament um sometimes kids get added to a roster because you're missing okay so for example one of our teams uh is missing a couple of players uh because one of them is injured and we're going to A6 we want to be able to get a bid for this two's team people think that because we add a player or two that we're charging them we're not charging them we don't make any money we are not making any more money the whole purpose is to have a team develop and succeed period if it costs us more money it costs us more money and we're that ultimately is the experience at the end of the day like and I I want to hear from both of you right because Davis you kind of get out of these questions sometimes but what's your goal as an overall club like what are you looking for player wise as a whole like as a whole like what is gonna make us continue to grow to be successful for the best for these children what are you looking for I think my ultimate goal is to be able to start and we have started our we have a DRP program which is our developmental program. We've got nine ten eleven twelve thirteen forty years old but I want to start that program where it grows and we have that bottom tier where kids that are seven eight nine years old are coming in and I'm able to see that seven year old graduate as an 18 year old from our program. I want to be able to start them and finish them. So I get to know their families who they are and say you are a part of FIVA because when they come back from college you know where they're coming to coach at FIVA. That's it. And we have and that's that's a culture we have kids that have graduated from us, gone off to college and when they're done they come back get a job here in Tampa and come back to coach for us.

SPEAKER_01 50:33

And we're and that is they have a job. Yeah right they're just looking to I don't know what's next in my life but I'm home and this is where I feel family is this is where I feel at home.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

Yeah I mean we've we've had we've only been here five years we've already had you know ex-players come and coach so you know it's gonna continue. Those I mean most of those kids are still in college.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

So I'm gonna give a little story from Chicago because it kind of gave me like a whole like circle like full circle moment where Jordan was in Chicago. She might have not been coaching a team but Jordan was with us in Chicago and you know the coaches went out together like we just all went out for dinner or whatever and we're all sitting there and it look like Jordan she looks at me and goes isn't this weird being on this side of it like when because Jordan wasn't player. Yes Jordan was a player one time I go I used to see you we used to put you to bed mom used to put you to bed and mom you know mom Tina who was a coach at the time would come out with the coaches for a little and you know Jordan wasn't like nine okay she was like 17 staying home let me clarify that but we would go out and we would just kind of get together and just kind of unwind for the night and it wasn't anything crazy but it's just we're all together we can all share our experiences we can all be there for each other you know talk a coach but now she's on that other end. And now she's on the other end. So I go George go how weird is it yeah like this is this is what it it was 10 years ago when you were playing you know and now you're on this side of it like now you know what we're doing when you went to bed when coaches did our thing you know when Kylie came to coach AU's last year she was kind of telling the same thing she's like it's kind of weird like Elise coached me Katya coached me Fernando coached me now we're like all going out to dinner together it's really really weird like we're gonna we I shared a bazookie with them though like you and your bazookie like my thirtieth my 30th birthday is it at A6 and I'm thinking about culture like I'm thinking about and I hope Kylie's there I'm hoping Jordan's there I'm like I used to coach these girls and now they're gonna go help me celebrate my 30th birthday kids from other clubs calling us you know to be assistant coaches for us. And so at the end of the day that just shows like we're however we're putting it together we got to put our kids first you know at the at the end of the day yeah we have to put the kids first 100% all right so I'm gonna wrap this thing up because we're gonna be here till midnight but um I know guys we started when the sun was up now the sun is down and it's dark out so I I did want to say one thing.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

So I've had a lot of people come up to me and say you know hey we want to be able to ask questions we want to you know ask a question on the podcast or you know I have a suggestion for topic so we have a now that we are the big the biggest volleyball podcast in Florida. And only one but the biggest but the biggest we're the biggest were the greatest that's right so we have a we we have an email so it is feva podcast at gmail dot com so please send us your questions if you have any you know topics you want to send uh we will do our best for your at least for your questions to um you know discuss them on the episode we can call you out by name if you want to be on if you want me to call you by name or we can keep it anonymous it's up to you um but but please send those again viva podcast at gmail.com um f e v a p o d c a s t at gmail.com for those of you who can't spell um but please do that um thank you coach cadia yeah i mean at the end of the day we want questions right they're coming from everyone it's it doesn't necessarily have to be fever related because volleyball has to be volleyball related you can ask me you know what's my favorite bazookie or whatever you want that's totally fine oh yes everybody wants to know that yeah that's a big one it's shot right you know at the end of the day like Katia's coaching style it could be like what makes Elise smile yeah so yeah so please do that and again of course like I said subscribe to our podcast what what are you waiting for?

SPEAKER_01 54:27

Let's just get it over with I'm gonna keep bugging you till you do it and you guys are not all subscribed yet yeah I can tell well can I close it out go ahead all right well thank you guys for listening we had our favorite director on today Katia Spedra whoa and only if we have not had an issue no she's amazing we'll have her back on again I'm sure a lot of your questions are going to be questions she can answer. But no we're grateful to have you guys hearing us and again we're gonna be this is an episode over the last you know next two weeks so all right well thank you for having me on Fislife