Club Volleyball Shenanigans

In this episode, Davis and Elyse discuss the crazy time of year in club volleyball when players and coaches are looking for new homes. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to Above the Tape and All Access Feather Podcast. My name is Davis Lauderdale, and I am your favorite director of Florida Elite Volleyball Academy, but more importantly, I am the host of this podcast. Thank you guys for joining us. I know it's been a couple weeks, but uh welcome back. Um, after yet another vacation, I'm happy to welcome back my co-host. Uh, she is the head coach of our top six teens team, as well as the two-time conference coach of the year at Sun Lake High School. Please welcome back Elise DePonta. Thank you, Ben. How are we doing? I'm doing good. I'm good. So before we get started, um, please subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen to your podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and a whole bunch of others. Um, and to all the non-haters, don't forget to give us a five-star review. All right. So um I don't unfortunately have a joke this week. A little unprepared a little unprepared. I do have a story, though. The story's kind of good. So um I'll switch it up. You good with that? Yeah, I can't wait to hear it. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Have you ever heard the story?

SPEAKER_05 1:06

No. I just no, it just happened. So um the other day I was at I was at the bank, right? And there was It still goes to the bank. It still goes to the bank. You have to go to the bank sometimes. So anyway, I go to the bank and there's uh there's a unfortunately like a one-legged man, and um he went over to the ATM and he was just kind of standing there. Eventually I realized he was just checking his balance.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

I thought this was a full story.

SPEAKER_05 1:39

Anyway.

SPEAKER_04 1:40

I'm like God, I can't believe.

SPEAKER_05 1:44

Were you like really trying to think what I was gonna what was gonna happen there?

SPEAKER_04 1:47

Yeah, I thought you were gonna like say, I don't know, like something really positive and cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:53

Anyway, so what have you been up to during your your vacation?

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Um sleeping a lot. Yeah. While rested now. Um, I don't think it was my birthday, so I celebrated my birthday. You didn't mention that. Yeah. Oh, good. Um the big three-o. So I've been you know, celebrating my birthday because it's a birthday month. So you know, I celebrated it a few times. Um no hanging out with the baby, most importantly. But other than that, just chilling and honestly preparing myself for like like postseason and and getting into all those things. So just put a clean up.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

Put a pen in that. We're gonna we're gonna get back to it. Yeah. Um, you know, for me, um, I have been watching a lot of a lot of shows, a lot of Netflix shows. Um, I watch The Boys on Amazon.

SPEAKER_04 2:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:41

Um The Boys or The Boys? The Boys. I've never seen that. It's pretty wild. It's a it's a superhero show, but yeah, it's okay. It's uh superhero. It's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. Definitely, definitely not for the children. Definitely not for the it is not Superman. Yeah. But it's really, I mean, it is pretty funny. Anyway, so I've been doing that. Um you know what?

SPEAKER_04 3:02

I've been watching a lot of TV. Yeah, I watch Summer House. Do you have you seen that? Is that Netflix? Yes. No, no, Peacock.

SPEAKER_05 3:09

I don't have Peacock.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Oh, I'll give you my login. It's a reality TV show.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

I don't do it. I don't do a reality TV show.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Yeah, so you do this one. And now, like, I caught up. So all the tea that's happening in like real life that now I know is going on. So I'm like, this is good. Yeah, and I watched that basketball show. I feel like you will like it. It has Kate Hudson in it too.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

Oh no, I did see that. Running point. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I love that show. I already went through it. I wanted I I finished it too. Yeah, like two days. Yeah, it was good. Well, I've watched a lot of stuff now that I think. So I've been and I've been watching the NBA playoffs. I'm a big I'm a big basketball fan. So those keeping me up till midnight to watch these games. They're killing me with the with the late night games. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

Um my Knicks are, you know, we have a chance now that Boston is gone.

SPEAKER_05 3:53

Very good chance. Very, very good chance. Um, another thing that I'm just gonna give uh this is great advice for everyone. I know I've told you, you have to go see the new Michael Jackson movie. I'm telling you guys, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

How many times have you gone?

SPEAKER_05 4:09

I'm going tomorrow. Okay, but I've seen it once already. I'm gonna see it tomorrow. I'll go to see with anybody who wants to go see it. It's that good.

SPEAKER_04 4:15

You're gonna see it again in Orlando.

SPEAKER_05 4:17

In Orlando. I was in the theater, and while I was doing it, through the movie, I was like checking my watch and I was like, do I have enough time to watch it, stay in the theater and watch it again? Because I had somewhere to go a few hours later, and I was like, I just I'm not gonna make it. But I was gonna literally sit in the same theater and watch it twice. It's that good.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

So who are you going with tomorrow?

SPEAKER_05 4:36

I'm going with Kylie, and my mom is coming in town. So that's our big news is my daughter Kylie is graduating college. My little my little baby, I can't believe it. Um I'm a little freaked out, makes me feel really old.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Um the next thing is like a long-term relationship. Nope, stop that. Not an engagement, she's way too young. Way too young. I know, but like that could happen in the next 10 years. You could be a grandpa in like 10 years.

SPEAKER_05 5:04

Okay, we're done here. Moving along. No, but I'm really I'm really proud of her. I'm really excited. She's gonna be a teacher. Um, I would have told you she's gonna be a teacher from when she was about five years old. That's really the only thing she's ever talked about being she has the perfect um teaching voice. Teaching, yeah, well, perfect personality for it. She's super patient, loves kids. Um, I'm, you know, I hope she marries Rich because, you know. But you know, she was always telling me she's like, you know, this is what I want to do, but I'm I'm scared I'm not gonna make enough money. And I'm like, well, you gotta do something you love, no matter what. Because if you're if you do something you love, it's it's it's gonna be worth it. So, you know, hopefully that's good advice. We shall see. But she asked me for like, she's like, oh dad, you know, she was doing something. Can you send me baby pictures? So then I went down a whole wormhole of looking through all her baby pictures. I'm on I'm on my my computer. I'm sure you have a lot. Um I have a million. I'm on my computer crying for no reason, looking at all these baby pictures. So yeah, it's gonna be tomorrow. I'm sorry, Saturday will be very, very emotional for me. But uh, I mean I'm really happy for it because I at least I don't have to pay for it anymore. So that's yeah, that's really good. Um, I got another big piece of news.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

Oh, what's that?

SPEAKER_05 6:12

BJ's has a new seasonal bazookie. This is the summertime one? I guess. But listen to this. It's a biscoff pazookie. You know what biscoff is?

SPEAKER_04 6:24

That that looked good. The cookies that give you on like on the music from airplanes.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:29

I didn't try it yet. So we went and I'm assuming you're doing that after the Michael Jackson movie.

SPEAKER_05 6:35

Probably so. That's that's that's my tentative plans. But I have it looks so good. It's a sugar cookie with ice cream, with some kind of sugar cookie with a buttercream sauce, and then a biscoff cookie, and then biscoff cookie crumbles all around it. I have to do it. I like it. I like it a lot. So I've already called and asked when it's leaving, and they won't tell me because they say they don't know. So I'm freaking out about it that it's gonna be gone tomorrow when I go.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

So I might I feel like I have to go to like today and go. I know. We gotta, I'm telling you, let's you know there's one like 20 minutes away.

SPEAKER_05 7:07

The one in loose? Yeah. Yeah. Everything's 20 minutes from here. Oh my god, whatever. Anyway, um, so anyway, this so this time of year, um, it's kind of a little bit of a break for us. Um, but of course, we're also kind of working to prepare for next season. Um, usually when when someone calls me, they don't really know what how volleyball works. I always tell them, you know, it's really broken down into into three seasons. You have your mini club for the younger kids, and of course for older kids it would be high school. Um, you have your regular season, which is, you know, the season from November to April. And then you have your postseason, which is, you know, from usually basically May and June. Yeah. Um, and then right now you kind of have that in between, right? Where you're kind of you know headed into postseason. This is really my least favorite part of the year for a couple of reasons. Um it's just because of the number one, the uncertainty of what's of what's gonna happen, and it's just all the little things that you know kind of happen in the background. You know what I mean? Like this, which we're gonna gonna we're gonna go over that. That's really the whole point of this episode, is to kind of give you guys again a little bit of access to what we go through as directors and even coaches and players. So we're gonna kind of you know break that down. Um, real quick, do want to talk about um how amazing of a season we had this year. Um it's been pretty wild. We had seven bids this year with five different teams, which means obviously that two teams double bidded. Um which is awesome. Yeah, never, never, never had that many. Um it's it's huge congratulations to 13 Fernando, who bidd twice and open in USA, 14 Cadia in Liberty, 18 Fernando in American, 15 Cadia in USA, and 15 Britney in Freedom. Um again, I mean I'm proud of all of them, but in a way I'm most proud of Britney's team. Yeah, I mean, for a two's team to come out and get a bid um is just fantastic. And they and they came really close to getting an American bid. So, I mean, in a in a national qualifier. So they are they are they just did so great. Um, really, really, really proud of them. I've I'm just so excited. Um, you know, every year we've increased our bid total, which is good. And it's not all about the bid, um, but it's also obviously a good indication. But you can also look at like all of our rankings from all of our teams has gone up each and every year. That's awesome. So yeah, so we're doing, I guess we're doing something inclining, yeah, not declining. The whole idea of this is you have to kind of build year by year. You know, it doesn't it doesn't happen overnight or it shouldn't. Um, you know, you kind of gotta, you know, gotta build. So um, and of course, right now we have announced our tryout dates. It is live registration is live. You can go on our website, on our social media, you can do all that. We gave a little early bird discount if you book by June 1st, and that's basically because we're trying to get it, it gives us a better idea of how many people are gonna be there. Yep, you know, do we have to move, you know, add a wave, take away a wave? Um, how many coaches do you think we're gonna need? Who can we kind of can start kind of sort of like mapping out our coaches and whatnot. So hopefully, you know, everybody just I know people don't like people like to wait, but if you can if you can do it now, that would make me very, very happy.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

So make me happy too.

SPEAKER_05 10:17

Yeah, I know. It's it's just kind of the just kind of want to get that part out of the way. Again, not my favorite part. Um so while we are kind of going, you know, while we're going through and doing like, you know, tryout registrations and planning and working on the coaching lineups and all that kind of good stuff, planning camps and having open gyms and whatnot, there's really three things that go on behind the scenes, right? Um, and so again, in this episode, that's kind of what I want to do, is I want to talk about those three things, and of course, you just kind of chime in where you want. Um, the number one thing that happens is this is the time of year where players and their families are kind of starting to shop around for next season.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:58

You know? Um, and so obviously nobody is committing or leaving for sure. And and then, you know, the bet I me as a big football fan, I always compare it to the NFL has a legalized tampering period, or like before free agency, you can talk, they can talk to other teams. You can't officially sign, but you can say, hey, I'm coming. Yeah. And it's like verbally saying you can't put anything on paper. So it's it's kind of the same thing with us, you know. Um, and in volleyball, everybody has a one-year contract. So essentially everybody is a free agent, you know, coaches and players.

SPEAKER_04 11:28

Imagine if you saw that like kids signing conference. I know we have like signing day. Yeah, like they have a hat they put on, like this, and I've taken my talents to Florida League Volleyball Academy.

SPEAKER_05 11:45

I wish we could sign coaches to a multiple-year contract. So maybe we can. Maybe we should look into that. Yeah, no, yeah, I know. So um but yeah, you know, any so basically anyone who's not happy with their club or you know, they want to make a better team or you know, whatever, yeah, those are the ones that, you know, are obviously shopping. And then, you know, for us, you know, which I'm sure you hear it, we hear it, we hear all these rumors about hey, this player's coming, this player's coming, oh, this player's leaving, they're gonna go. It's always talk. There's it's always talking.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

They might have made a friend in high school that plays on a club volleyball team, and now they want that friend to come play with them, or they want to go play with that friend. It's just yeah, there could be so many reasons why.

SPEAKER_05 12:27

And a lot of times, I mean, I would say more times than not, it's it's nothing. You know, never it doesn't end up happening. Yeah. Um, but you know, you can't you can't help but as you know, as a club director, and as a coach, you can't help but worry. Yeah, you know, a little bit of worry, obviously excited for who's coming in, but you never want to lose, you know, you really don't want to lose anybody.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

And so you know it's gonna be you know, you're not always we're not like oh we need this. Like we're not always constantly looking. Um, but we incur like we want people to come in, we want people to to come see us and things like that.

SPEAKER_05 13:00

That's the only way that we can build a true program. You know, to me, a true program is not oh, the ones team is really good. Correct. A true program is ones, twos, threes, fours, five, all the way down. That's what successful every single level. So you can have players wanting to okay to make that fours team because they're still gonna be a really good team, it's still gonna be better than another club's game.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

I always say that like number really doesn't identify the the level of play these girls are. Like, like for instance, our twos team got a bid. Yeah, like and there's a lot of girls. There's probably some people that I'm not saying on us, but like in other clubs or anything, we'll be like, Oh, I don't I don't want to be on a twos team. Yeah this and look where this got them. You know, they got a they got a bid in a level that I think they're gonna be very successful in, yeah. And and nationals, so that's awesome. Yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_05 13:45

And that's kind of what I the last podcast when I was, you know, if you guys didn't listen, um, you know, had the 15 Britney's team on like right after they won the bid, and I was kind of telling us like, look, there's three or four players on this team that have been on the ones before. And, you know, I'm really proud of them for staying and you know, and working on the twos and making that twos better than a lot of most teams won.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

So I mean it's I think like when Katia was on last, she did a really good job explaining how we do our our try-off process and explaining like we're not you know, I've heard of some clubs, especially like back in the day, like I'm talking about years ago, where they would split their best players into two teams. Right. Yeah, and then try to make two good teams. It's like, no, we don't need to do that. We have overall talent. Let's just have yeah, let's and that level of play. Yeah. That's appropriate for them to be in a certain level, right? You know.

SPEAKER_05 14:34

So yeah, it is again, it is very stressful because I personally hate losing I hate losing girls. You know, I I think I think less I think more less so than the coaches, am I worried about the talent is more so the kids and the families, and I just hate to see anybody go, but it's the nature of the beast.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

You're never gonna retain everybody, you're never gonna you're never gonna make everybody happy, but I will, you know, I always will continue to try to do so, but you know Yeah, from a coach's standpoint, it's you know, you've built this relationship with these kids since October, November, yeah, playing like you've met them in the summer prior or the year before, um, and you watch them in high school and stuff like that. So it's it you build a relationship. So regardless, you never want to see anyone go.

SPEAKER_05 15:16

Yeah, and I I mean for me, the h one of the hardest things for me is when you have a you know, you have a team, you have your tryouts, and you have a girl who's you know, say been on the ones teams for two years or three years or even one year, and you know they're gonna get moved down. You know, it's you have to because that's the talent that comes in. I mean, again, one thing about us, I think it's so funny you hear people say, oh, um if you don't go to this school, their FIVA's not gonna play you, or you know, the you're not gonna make this team. That is the biggest bunch of hogwash I've ever heard in my life. Because listen, I'll tell you right now, and this is the truth, and I've talked about this with her. Cottie would put her own daughter on the twos team if she had a better setter in that position. Oh. It doesn't matter. Like we are that is not. And once the season, once the season goes on, like once the season starts, you're not even thinking about what high school this kid goes to or or if they've been here for trying to win. Or if they've been here for two years, two years, three years. I could we could all care less. That's come I mean maybe some clubs run that way.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

I I can't I mean Or like like players, it's like the same thing, like players feel like they need to like I don't know how to explain it. It's just I don't how am I what am I trying to say here?

SPEAKER_05 16:24

Like they have to play certain players because yeah, because they've been on the club for so many years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

It's like no, that's not what we're what we're trying to do.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

No, but it but it is tough.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

But that does happen at other clubs. Yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_05 16:35

I'm sure. But it but it is but it is tough. Like it is it's not something that we look forward to doing. Oh, we're replacing this kid with a better kid. Like it's it's very, very and especially for me. Like I I really it really bothers me, and especially because especially if that that kid leaves, nine times out of ten if they stay, they end up being really happy, and it works out great. But you know, I I feel bad for those ones, and it you know, it's but it's it is just the nature of the beast, it's the nature of the way we do things here. Um, so you know, it'll happen this year. I hope I hope I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

Exactly. We just want you to be successful where you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_05 17:08

And that's the thing is we could always just say, here, we're gonna put you on the ones and just not play you. You know what I mean? Or you know, and that but if we didn't care about the kid, that's what we would do. We'll take that money, put you on the bench, and we'll be, you know, we'll be we'll be rolling.

SPEAKER_04 17:21

Put you in a a point or two or you know, in a in a random game on that random weekend.

SPEAKER_05 17:26

But we we take it very serious that our job is to get her do the best for these kids, put them in the best positions to win, best positions to succeed and be, you know, to develop.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

We're not gonna carry a high number for that girl just to sit the bench. Right. You know, yeah. So there's no point of that.

SPEAKER_05 17:41

So anyway, um, the next thing that kind of happens is movement by the coaches. Oh, this this is my favorite one. I know. I you I can see you, I can see you light up.

SPEAKER_04 17:49

You know, this is this is where the T really is.

SPEAKER_05 17:52

Yes, this is really where it all starts. So this is basically, you know, when coaches want to move on from their current club and they start reaching out to other clubs, um, you know, they'll a lot of clubs will already, you know, they'll be hiring, they'll hire the coach while they're still at the other at the other club. Yeah. Um can't say we've never done that. It is just part of the game. If someone applies, you have to hire them.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

Yeah. Um, but yeah, that's there why is there a waiting period? Yes. You know, it's not our job to be like, hey coach, you need to like figure things out over there first, and then you can come up interview. Like people don't do that. People don't leave their job and then go start interviewing.

SPEAKER_05 18:29

Well, it and it does it does put the club, it does put the club director in a very difficult position.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Yeah, you know, and but at the same time, if roles were reversed, yeah, how would that club before? Well, it's difficult for everyone.

SPEAKER_05 18:41

When when a coach leaves in the middle of the season, I'm gonna call it middle of the season, but you know, let's just say like right now, if there's this if you know the coaches said, Hey, I'm leaving FIVA and I'm going to you know Club X, it puts everybody in a difficult, it's difficult for us, it's difficult for the players, the players under that coach, their families, um, and it's but it's difficult, it's difficult for everyone to understand why it's we as club directors, we have to make a decision. Yeah. Um you basically when when you find out a coach is leaving, when they're going to a competitor, right? Um when I say competitor, I mean a local team, like you know, another club in Tampa, right? Um you have to really decide as a club director, are you gonna let that coach finish out the season for you, or do you just go ahead and let them go? You know, most people think, hey, you gotta keep the coach, they've been there, that's what's best for the team and the kids. That's not always the case, unfortunately. You know, and you gotta under so number one, you have to understand that there's almost a 100% chance that a that a coach is going to influence him or her to to those kids to follow him or her to the new club. Yeah. I mean, whether it be on purpose or just you know, they have a huge connection with that coach.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Like I said, you just build a real relationship, these kids will slash you.

SPEAKER_05 19:56

So if you know, if if you go and if you're leaving and your players are gonna be like, you know, of course, why is she leaving? Well, is it better here? Should I should I I really love Elise, you know, I want to follow, I want to follow her. And it's just kind of the way it works. Um so yeah, I mean and and really most people base their club base how they feel about their club based upon their coach, right? I mean, if you have a it's kind of like a teacher. If you have, you know, but how's the school? Well, if your teacher's great, it's a great school. If your teacher's not if you don't like your teacher, it's a terrible school. It's kind of the it's kind of the same way. Um so yeah, if a coach leaves, they're gonna want to follow. Um and then on top of that, most coaches when they leave, they're gonna try to vis they're gonna try to bring the players with them by asking, you know, hey, come follow me. It's just the way, you know, it's the way it is. But again, it it's even if they don't do that, they're not gonna say, Don't follow me. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 20:50

So at the end of the day, you know, you're you know, it's just coaches, if you are leaving a club, just leave with respect, right? Like, you know, and and especially if they're letting you coach AU's and and things like that, um, leave with respect. Just yeah, hey, I'm going here, I'm letting you know, and make sure you let them know and not like not find out on social media.

SPEAKER_05 21:12

We'll get we'll we'll we'll put a pin in that as well.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

But yeah, I mean it's you know it's you know, even when I left my last club, it was in that postseason. I I didn't know what I was doing. Like I I didn't give you guys a confirmation until months later. Yeah. And I was just like, I know I will not be back here next year. I don't know if I'm gonna coach. I don't know if I'm gonna go somewhere else, right? So it's like, what do you want to do? Do you want me to finish out postseason or not? Right. And it was hard to finish out postseason.

SPEAKER_05 21:40

And it's hard too because as a club director, you might not have the coach. Most, I mean, most people don't have, you know, if you're leaving our top sixteens team, we don't just have elite coaches just in the bullpen. We can't just go like that.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

Well, you know, my thing too was like I wanted to make sure I did it with class and everything. And I I was like, what do you want me to? Said, when do you want me to say? Do you even want me to tell the girls? Right, right. You know, like if you don't want me to tell the girls until I'm done coaching them, that's what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

Yeah. I mean, for me, generally speaking.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

Like, what's your ideal way of a coach leaving? They don't leave. That's the ideal.

SPEAKER_05 22:15

And and and luckily for us, we've been so fortunate where it's never really it hasn't really happened to us. And I'm I'm knocking on wood because it can happen at the end of it. Who knows? You know, I our putting my resignation paper stopped working. No, we're not accepting it. But it is, you know, I lean towards if you the coach kind of has to you have to let the coach go. And again, I think you have a better chance of bringing in a coach and the kids liking that coach and wanting to stay for that coach versus if they if you I just think I just think there's it's it's such a conflict of interest. Yeah. And then and the my best comparison, again, I always got to compare it to football because or football or basketball, but if you if you follow follow college football, if you know Ole Miss, they had Lane Kiffin as their coach. So so he went, he, for those who don't know, which I know a lot of you volleyball girls won't know this, so he was a coach at he coach at Ole Miss, and he led his team to the playoffs. Um Ole Miss does not visit the playoffs very often. It's been a really long time since like Archie Manning played. They've got they've made it that far. But anyway, um he then went and during their little break between before the bowl before the playoffs started, he got a job at LSU, which is a obviously in the same conference. You know, it's like us in you know Tampa North or Tampa United, like direct competition. He went and got a job with them, and then he was like, Well, I want to stay and coach through the bowl game, through the playoffs. And the AD is like, uh, no, you're not. I can't have you. And you know, the I heard one person say, like, you can't have them, you know, using the old miss phone to call LSU prospects. You know, you just can't do it. So it's difficult both ways.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

You're preparing for the postseason. So if you keep that coach, they're gonna be prepared, like they know what you're gonna be doing and you're what your plan is and what you're sharing.

SPEAKER_05 24:03

And then you know, and another thing too, that I don't know how often is that it I don't know how often it really happens, but it can happen is it can have a a disconnect between the player and a coach. So let's say you know you're leaving, you're and you're you know, you're getting onto your player, it's very easy for that player to say, well, she's not she's quitting on me. I don't have to listen to her. Yeah. It's a very it's just a tough situation. Um, but why you know why should I listen to you? You're quitting. You know, you know, so it it can happen. Um and it's it's really just a a no-win for the club director. I don't think there is a good way to deal with it.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Um you just deal with that it's just like a coach leaving midseason. You gotta figure it out. Right.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

So, like, for but you know, on the other hand, obviously, like uh coach Alexis is leaving. You know, she's moving to South Carolina. Um, I'm sure she's gonna co coach go coach club volleyball. We're not gonna let her go. She's not taking her kids to South Carolina, she's not gonna try to take those kids to South Carolina. The kids know that she's not quitting on them. You know, the husband got a job and they have to move. And that's just kind of the way it is. That's that's obviously an easy, you know, an easy one, but it it it does get really I think that's our only one.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:08

Yeah. Yeah, it is. I mean, yeah, and and we were talking about I was talking to Kati about this yesterday, two days ago. I was like, how many of our coaches, our former coaches, are currently coaching, went to another club. We can only think of one, and that was from our very first year. We any coach, we've either driven them into retirement or they or they're still here because they have not gone. We have we've been so fortunate on that.

SPEAKER_04 25:35

You guys are gonna drive me into retirement. I guess we gotta keep uh you know what I did tell Kanya though, I was like, hey, when can I get my name on a ball cart? Ooh, and she goes, You gotta you gotta promise me 10 years. Yeah, so won't Lila be 11, she'll be blind by then. I think I could do that.

SPEAKER_05 25:52

All right, uh, yeah, I'm I'm good with that. But yeah, it it it um, you know, it it's all this is all this happens every single year. Um, it's already happened to a local club this year. Um, I'm sure a lot of people already know who that is. I'm not gonna say names. Um I wanna be and I want to be respectful, and um, but I do feel that I do feel for that club director, and and it's not just one, but I'm just speaking of one in particular. I I feel bad for them. I feel bad for the kids that have lost their coach for the rest of the season. Yeah. Um so I guess I I mean I look at it, I guess I gotta keep being really nice to you guys, like I have been. You know, brought you lunch today, you know. Yeah, that was good. Putting you on these first class Southwest lights. I love it. Thing, you know, those kind of things. First class. First class. You know what? I want the extra row. That's first class in my eyes.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

If if I don't have that, I will rip who whatever FIBA person is there out of their seat and sit there.

SPEAKER_05 26:46

Yeah, it is it is good. It is definitely good. All right, so now we move on to the third thing that happens. All right, let's hear it. This is new club starting up.

SPEAKER_04 26:55

And this is an this is another um This is this is probably the most sketchiest one out.

SPEAKER_05 27:01

Yeah, and it's and and let me be very, very clear. This is not a bad thing. Everyone has to start at some point. We did it, we were a brand new club. So I am by no thing that I say from here on out does not mean that I dislike any club that comes out of, they're terrible, they don't know what they're doing. That is not what I'm saying. Everybody has to start. So just understand that. Um, it would be very hypocritical for me to criticize someone for open up a new club, right? I can't I can't do that. Um that being said, there are clubs that pop up that try to take shortcuts to success, right? Um what do they do? Like drop the coach and then the player. So basically what they do is they just they get these they they start out by poaching players from other teams, you know, in the middle of the regular season. They just start poaching. Um so instead of having a a tryout and you know, trying to build their club from the ground up, um, they're poaching these players and creating these ready-made teams. Okay. You know, and that's kind of um I'm just I'm just telling parents and players, if you listen to me on this, do not join these clubs. And I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna I'm gonna explain to you guys why. Because well, first of all, they don't succeed. That's just pure, I mean, there's just so many examples. They do not succeed. Um, you know, if you kind of use the analogy of building a house, you don't just slap on wood and nails and build a house, right? You have to build a foundation first. You don't build a foundation, the house is not gonna last. Right? You may it may look nice for a couple, it may look nice for a year, but eventually it's gonna it's gonna come falling down because you never because you never built a foundation. Um so when you're taking an entire team, you know, you're taking four kids from this club and six kids from this club, and there's my team. We're not even gonna worry about tryouts or anything like that. I've got my teams. You're just not developing. There's no there's no development in doing that. Um, and then you know, people find out those teams are already done, and they're not gonna go try out for a team for a club that already has their team built. Yeah, you know what I mean? And it just doesn't work, it doesn't work like that. The team's already pre-made. Why am I gonna waste my time? Um and really, you know, trials are just kind of an illusion, or as everybody likes to say, a money grab. That's the big word that people use. Um, but it kind of is. Um, you're just not gonna develop anything. Yeah. Um and usually when these clubs start, it's usually the same thing. Um, it's usually a person who's never run a club or run a business at any point. So they're trying to skip the necessary steps to just go right into glory, right? Like I'm just gonna I'm not gonna build my club. You want to name a club? I'm not doing that. But it just doesn't work, it just doesn't work like that. You know, stir the pot. I know you really are trying to get me in trouble, and I'm already probably gonna get in trouble, but that's okay. Um a lot of times it's like, you know, it's a it's parents or coaches that were are not happy, have bounced from club to club and have just never been happy. So I'm just gonna start it on my own. Um but the problem with that is they're doing everything to benefit themselves. They're not doing it to benefit the club. So I'm gonna make this team for my daughter, I'm gonna make this team for me to coach. So you're not worried about the other other girls, you're not worried about the other teams, you're only worried about yourself.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Yeah, one one team is not gonna, you know be the only thing. You're not gonna make a club. Correct. One team does not make a club. Can a one team help your club name get out there? 100%. Yeah. But you also still have to continue to do things for that team along with the other teams that you're gonna be bringing in. Yeah, and I think some clubs forget about that sometimes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:34

I mean, you can't I mean, when we first started when we first started, um, you know, we basically had two good teams. We had a 17 team and an 18s team. 17s was it was Mia, and you know, everybody wanted to play with Mia. Mia's, you know, Cadia's oldest daughter, and the 18s team was my daughter, Kylie, who most of her teammates from the year prior came to. Um and they were good teams. They they weren't amazing. I mean, Mia's team was closer to amazing than Cody's, but they were they were solid teams.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:02

But everybody else we had was not that great. You know, we I mean we but we developed them. I mean, you look at someone like Jazzy, who started on our 12 regional team. You know, and Jazzy and Haley was on that team. They've developed every single year. They weren't great, they weren't even good. And that 12 team was was terrible. They lost almost every game.

SPEAKER_04 31:22

But they were fun to see them have grown too, you know. And so that's the whole point. And that's one of our top teams now.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

So we had to we had to build up our teams to be impressed. We were lucky that our daughters were 17 and 18, but we had to build everything else. And it was it had it had its moments that we weren't competing in most of these tournaments until the next year we started to compete a little more, then the next year we really started to compete, and now we're really starting to it's only really last year and this year we really started to compete. Yeah. Beyond just our our top teams. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

But every, you know, we so it it's But it just shows that we're putting in the development into these kids and making sure they're getting what they need to be successful, yeah. And that we're not a club that just only looks at our ones team as the only team.

SPEAKER_05 32:08

Yeah, yeah. And again, can't say this enough. There is nothing wrong with a new club starting and trying to get new players. Um, but again, I just think when you're trying to create full teams in March and April for the following season, that is it's just not the way to do it. Um, and there's there's an there's because you know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

You're just going around at AAUs and you're going around they're not even waiting to AAUs. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 32:31

They're doing it at Gasparilla. Like it's crazy. They do it there. There is a club.

SPEAKER_04 32:35

They're gonna do it at like a regional tournament, is the probably the easiest way to do it, to be honest.

SPEAKER_05 32:41

Yeah. So there's there's a new club locally come into town that's doing it. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give them the the the glory to say. Do I know? I don't think so. I haven't I'm not gonna I'm not gonna mention their name, but they're they're even using you know parents to come out and recruit. So they're having they're having parents sitting on their other team's courts in the middle of games talking to these parents about, hey, come to our club, come to our club. Um that's wild. Yeah, so you know, you're they're you know, promising the dirty words, promising the moon and the stars, and they have no way to promise that. They have they have no way to fulfill that. You can't have no way to show that. Yeah, you have nothing.

SPEAKER_04 33:17

You have like even if that coach coached that team at another club, yeah, right, it doesn't mean that's gonna be exactly gonna happen at the the new one.

SPEAKER_05 33:26

And so I've said this, I've said this a million times. Being a club, a great club director. I'm sorry, being a great coach does not equal being a great club director. You can be a great coach and a terrible club director. You can be a terrible coach and be a great club director. It it can go either way. You can be good at both, both. You can be great at both, you can be bad at both. It I mean, every it it but just they the two are so not connected. Yeah, it's totally different, it's totally different skill sets. I would be the worst coach out there. We all know that. I'm a I'm an avid slightly above average director, at least, I like to think. I'll give you that. Okay, yeah, slightly above average director. Yeah, but it's very responsive. It's two totally different jobs. It's it's and it's a lot of experience too. You know, and and obviously when you go to a brand new club, there's a lot of a lot of it's a big learning curve. It was for us. There's a lot of firsts. And that's okay. That's what people forget. There's a lot of firsts.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

And they think they know because they were on one side of it, but they've never been the director side of it.

SPEAKER_05 34:20

Right. And it's okay. It's okay to have issues you know starting up. It's it's okay to go to a club that's gonna have some of those growing pains. But most of those people, they're going to that club thinking they're gonna get an open bid. You know what I mean? Like, oh, we're just gonna be this amazing club in year one. That ain't gonna happen. And then when they doesn't happen, and then when they don't even play open, and then it crashes and burns, you know what I mean? And and then everything goes, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

It's like later on, they're like, well, we're gonna put you guys in American.

SPEAKER_05 34:46

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I can I can go down a long list of clubs that have kind of failed this business model. So I'm just gonna say it again, you know, buyer beware, buyer beware, guys. Don't do it. I'm telling you, you're gonna you'll thank me later.

SPEAKER_04 35:00

I feel like this has been one of the most so far, and I don't even think I've had two full weeks off yet, to be honest. I haven't I feel like this has been the wildest postseason in a long time. In a long time. In a long time.

SPEAKER_05 35:15

Yeah, there's there's yeah, it's there's been a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 35:19

I don't know if there's is it there's not even that there's more clubs, it's just there is more clubs, and and the and the But I won't even say that's the reason why for it.

SPEAKER_05 35:27

I think everything, everything goes, everybody's trying to beat everybody to the punch. I think it goes with the ego, the social media, the Yeah, but you know, it used to be you would start poaching players at AAU Nationals. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:38

Now we're doing it at that was a fine line. Yeah, yeah. Now we're now we're doing it in February. We're gonna poach them there.

SPEAKER_05 35:43

Yeah, now we're doing it in February. We had we had a parent, one of those parents from that club, talking to our kids in many club about coming to their club. Like, what are we doing? It's never gonna get brought, you know. I know.

SPEAKER_04 35:57

And then like as a parent, it does feel good when you're hearing stuff about your kid. So of course they're gonna go brag. They're gonna brag to their their friends, and then those friends know those friends, and those friends know the coaches, and then the coaches know the directors. It's uh yeah, it will get back. It will it will get back.

SPEAKER_05 36:15

And and it's fine. I mean, look, I never punish, I never punish a kid for that. I will, you know, we're never gonna and and I always say this too. When you're if you're leaving a club, everybody leaves for the same ultimate reason. You're leaving because you think it's a better opportunity for your daughter. The grassy and old screen or some other stuff. But I can't, I can't blame a kid for doing I can't blame people for doing it. I can't never speak to someone again because of that. It's you know, they're at the end of the day, they're just trying to do right by their kid.

unknown 36:42

100%.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Yeah. And you can't do anything but, you know, as a parent, you want to support your kid and and whatnot. But yeah, so even if I don't just put a lot of thought into it. Don't do it off. I always tell people, if it's for one specific reason, go home, sit down, think about it for a little. Tryouts aren't until July. Yeah. I wouldn't start opening your mouth about like we're gonna do this because they're not happy about one reason, but a million other reasons were great, right? Yeah. Just sit down, talk about it. Yeah. Have those conversations.

SPEAKER_05 37:13

And and do you're you're never pros and cons list. Right. You're never gonna find a perfect club. No, it's not out there. You can't find a perfect anything. Yeah. So, you know, again, nothing, nothing wrong with changing clubs that it's best, but it grass is not always greener. And and again, stay away from these uh these ready-made clubs. Just telling you guys that is my that is my uh the best advice I might give you on this entire podcast. So yeah, anyway, thank you all for joining us. Um, we will be back uh next week for another episode.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

Um I'm glad I'm back in this seat. Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_05 37:48

It was good. It was kind of it was kind of weird not having you there on uh the last one. So I'm glad I'm glad you're here. So um I am working on bringing in a very special guest. I haven't even told you about it, but I'm working, I'm working on it. So hopefully we can make that work. Um once again, follow us wherever you listen to your podcast. Let's do it. Um, don't forget to give the number one volleyball podcast in Florida a five-star review.

SPEAKER_04 38:08

Oh, can we can we talk about like how people have been talking about us?

unknown 38:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:13

Yeah. So it did fulfill my bucket in A6. I'm not gonna say where this coach was coaching, but we were back to back and refinging, and I hope he's listening. So then he'd be like, oh, he's he's talking about me. He's talking about me. I had to text Davis right away. I saw him perks, you know, plus side. Um, he was like, Man, I love listening to your guys' podcast. Like it's really good. Like you guys share good information, it's funny and and all the things. So even our competitors, and this was like a local club towards us, yeah, yeah, are listening to our podcast. I'm like, there we go, we're doing something right.

SPEAKER_05 38:45

Well, it was Brittany had someone from Ohio, I think.

SPEAKER_04 38:48

Brittany had someone from Ohio. And then what about the email you sent me?

SPEAKER_05 38:51

Oh, yeah. Got a email with someone saying basically that you know it's been very helpful and it's kind of leaning them toward that. Um, to do that. Oh, I am so sorry. I gotta, I gotta start. I gotta do one more thing. We had questions. Oh, and so let's go over these questions. I really forgot about my brilliant idea. Yeah, we got we did have questions. So let me hear them. I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of paraphrase because it was kind of a long and I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of break it down. Um first one is wanting to know the difference between a five-one and a six-two and the advantages. And I'm gonna leave and I'm gonna give that 100% to you. You sure you don't want to? I'm not touching it. I could tell you, I could not tell you.

SPEAKER_04 39:27

So obviously the advantages part that's gonna be based off of like coach's preference and stuff, but I could tell you exactly what a five-one and six-two is. Six two is when you have two setters, okay, and there's eligible for six people to be on the court as as hitters. Obviously, you can't play with eight. So typically the setter is coming from the back row, but the setter is coming from the back row. Um, and once you get to the front row, you can sub someone in for that setter as a hitter for the right side, and then someone will come, that right side will be coming out and going in for another setter. So that's your six-two option. Your five-one is when you have a setter that's playing front and back row, setting the whole point of the game. Um, I used to be a really big fan of a 6-2. I loved it because I've always had three strong, big hitters, and then I had two great setters. Um I'm a huge fan of a 5-1 now. I will pick a 5-1 any day. Um, I think if you have the setter, and sometimes people don't like running the 5-1 because they're setters short. I don't care. Look at Ava. Ava's not the tallest person, but that girl can. Oh my gosh, she's incredible. She's one of the one of the best setters. You know, she's gonna be, I can't even imagine what she's gonna be when she's 18. But I I started liking it, honestly, when I started coaching Mia. Yeah. And then I, you know, it does help. She was a bigger setter of the ones I've had. Um it just a 5-1 gets your hitters in the flow of your setter. They know what they're getting. Sometimes when you're running a 6-2, you have hitters that are only getting that setter for two rotations or one rotation, so it could kind of just like I would say their their favorite setter for that many rotations. Um, so it kind of just depends. I think the preference and the differences and stuff, um, it's just obvious. You have one setter or you have two, yeah. And then um I think it everything is just gonna go based off what the coach wants. All right.

SPEAKER_05 41:28

Yeah, you go. That's a good answer. Definitely better than I could have done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:31

Do you know what a 4-2 is? Did anyone ever ask that one?

SPEAKER_05 41:34

No, I I'm gonna let you go ahead. Go ahead. No, that one that's like old school. That's like beginning. Baby babies.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

That's like when your setter's coming from the front row. So you have two setters, but your setter is gonna be in the front row. In the front. Yes, yeah. I actually did know that. Yeah, you see, look at that.

SPEAKER_05 41:48

It's still good for you. It's still good for you to explain it. All right, the next other question that they asked was um the a better understanding of the tiebreaker scenarios and tournaments. This is where my expertise lies. I am the tiebreaker expert that everybody calls. I'm the best at it. I'm just gonna tell you right now.

SPEAKER_04 42:07

These are some good questions. It's a good question. Did people really put this in, or did you do this? No, no, I swear to you.

SPEAKER_05 42:13

No, no, I I swear this is from um Heather, um, Heather's parents. Okay. I don't know if it's Heather or her or her parents, but either way. Um, so the tiebreaker situation. So can it get very complicated? I'm gonna keep it as simple as I possibly can. I'm gonna not you can't do every scenario, but I'll give you the most common scenarios. A two-way tie, very, very simple. Head to head. Whoever won, right? There's two teams that are two and one, and those are their tied for first place. The team that beat each other is the winner. The team that beat the other is the winner. Very easy. What gets complicated is when you have a three-way tie. All right. So let's say you have, you know, one team is 0-3 and the other three teams are two and one, right? Yeah. All right. So now, the first thing you look at is their set percentage. So what that means is how many sets they won versus how many sets they lost and the percentage. So if it's the higher set and the highest set percentage, they win. They move, they are, they are the first place, followed by second, followed by third. Now, what do you do if it's two if they all three have the same set percentage? That's where it gets tricky. So points. Only if it's not a qualifier. If it's not a qualifier, it goes by point percentage, right? So whoever basically won by the most amount of points is gonna win, so on and so forth. If it is in a qualifier and they have to be in contention for gold. So it doesn't have if it's if you're like in the tenfold bracket on day two, they just go by points. But if it's in contention to get gold, then there is a playoff. Okay, there is a playoff in that situation. Now, first, second, third all have the same. How do you determine first, second, and third? So the sec basically, usually the way it's done is second and third will play for second place. So they will determine they'll determine the rankings by point. So first, second, third. So the team with the highest point percentage will become first place and third. So then second and third will play for second play. Only to determine ranking. Only to determine who's first, who's second, who's third.

SPEAKER_04 44:20

But they would still make second and third play again. Correct.

SPEAKER_05 44:23

They'll make them they'll make second and third. And a qu in a qualifier in contention for gold. Because it's kind of you could destroy a team, other teams kind of quits or whatever. I I I don't agree. I think point should not be a determination, in my opinion. Yeah. And uh yeah, usually it's one to twenty-five. I I have heard of tournaments that go one to fifteen. Um, but yeah, I think that's but that's so that's basically how that works. Now there's obviously other, you know, other scenarios. I don't know what happens if they're all tied in point percentage. I don't know if that's even possible, but I have no idea what would happen there. I've never seen that happen.

SPEAKER_04 45:00

What if they like all won and lost like 25-23? Yeah. Right. That'd be wild. That would be wild.

SPEAKER_05 45:06

That'd be like you're there all night. I don't know, I don't know how you do that. I don't have any idea how you do that. But um, but yeah, so that is your basic tie break procedure. Um every tournament, every tournament sends out a tie break procedure thing, and I will actually read that typically. I am that much of a nerd. But I want to be prepared. So I'm usually the one who's like at the court, like, okay, we have to win this in the game.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

Any questions about the schedule? You just go, Davis. Yeah. You need to tell me.

SPEAKER_05 45:33

Well, it was like the it was the one game that um Cadia's 15's team was playing on day on day two. If they they they had to win in two to advance. If they lost in three, if they won in three, they were already out.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:47

And so, you know, you kinda let the coach know what the scenario is. Like, you need to do this. You need to do this.

SPEAKER_04 45:54

Yeah, because sometimes when you're coaching, you're just like, oh no, I think this, this, and this. Or like you think about it from a different tournament, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:00

Yeah. So but there is nothing worse than going two and one and and not coming in and and being not and being kicked out. That is uh that is rough. So all right, anyway, now we're out of here. Yeah. Thanks, guys. See you next time.

unknown 46:14

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 46:15

Fever side, serve it up live. Davis in the cup, coach leaves on the mic. Hey, go, go, hey, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. We go above the tape, every story, every play, break it down on the daily club dreams on the Tuesday. From the first ball toss to that fist and freeze. Every dive, every drop, gotta take from the leaves. Davis with the stats, we be talking the heat. From the bitch to the butts. Yeah, we bring it this week. Above the tape, we rise up.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

About this step, get all the best.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

Speak it out, this game, I'll put this, but it's a whistle blows for all new if we press play. Parents in the parking lot, kids streaming on the way. Let's do the bloopers, crying when we fall short. Then we're back in the gym, trying to play in the sport. Watch the leads with the wisdom, David's got the questions. Every week's the new one, even learning from lessons.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Speak it up, the button, a button stay.

SPEAKER_00 48:10

We go up, up, up, not the stage, stay. Talk it out, lift it up. Let me play a bunch. From the first lily to the card stage. Leave a fam in your ears as you chase that wave. A butt stay, we rise up.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Every step, every side out. About the step, the whole dust. Happy business, hold us, both of step, but it's getting sing it out, the buttons, but it's a bug to stay.