The Greatest Con in Volleyball

Davis and Elyse talk about the crazy offseason, as well as what are some of the things that parents believe that simply aren't true. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Above the Tape and All Access Viva Podcast. My name is Davis Lauderdale, and I am your favorite director at Florida Elite Volleyball Academy. But more importantly, I am the host of this podcast. My co-host today is one of our premier coaches at Viva. She's once again the head coach of our top six teens team. She's won multiple bids as the club coach, as well as reaching the final four in back-to-back years in high school. Please welcome Elise Zapato.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Hi, Davis.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

What's up? It's been a minute. Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

It's so good to be back. What have you been up to? Working and working and working and prepping for high school.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Fun. I know. Fun, fun, fun. So before we get started, um, please remember to subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen to your podcast. Yep. You can also watch us on YouTube as long as I don't mess up the video, which I have been known to do a couple of times. Quite a bit. Um make sure, a couple times. Make sure you give us a five-star review while you're there so you don't have to have the stigma of being a hater. Um, and as always, you can email us any questions at feavapodcast at gmail.com. Yep. You can even call or text me at 813-833-8746. Look at that. I can't believe it. Top volleyball podcast in Florida, and I'm still giving out my phone number. I love it. Crazy, crazy, crazy. You're so famous. I am, I am. So I do have a joke. It's been a while. I got a joke. Okay. What is the difference between a sock and a camera? Such a good one.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

A sock and a camera. There.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

There's a hole. One takes five toes, one takes photos.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Oh, that's good. I don't know where I was going with my answer. Like the eye hole, you know, and like holes in socks. You get it like photos. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty scared. Okay. All right. I was funny earlier, too, guys. Davis showed up to my house and I texted him. I said, hey, my garage is open because it was pouring down rain. And when he got out of the car, he said, Davis, I left the garage open because Teslas can't work at the rain.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Almost got electrocuted out here. It is we are dealing with some weather. We almost we actually lost power and I kind of had to delay a little bit. So uh yeah, but we made hopefully we won't get struck by lightning while we're doing this. So um, so anyway, we have completed the majority of our tryouts. Let's go. Welcome, Piva Peeps. Which once again, not my favorite time of the year. I love this time of the year. I know you probably would, but not for me, not for what I do. Um, you know, so we do have boys' tryouts tomorrow, which by the time we air this, it'll probably be tomorrow. We have boys tryouts on Saturday, uh, makeup tryouts coming up again on Sunday. Yep. Um, if you are still looking for a team and you want to join the kids, the club where all the cool kids hang out, give us a call. Yep. You know my number. Um also, you guys want to sign up for open gyms this week and next week? Some really good players showing up, like some ballers out there. So uh you don't have to be with Eva to participate. Um, we may tease you a little bit, but you know. But no, anybody, anybody's anybody's welcome to join. A lot of kids are getting ready for high school. They want to get a little bit of workout, good, good high-level competition. So you can go to our website, fevvolleyball.com, click on programs, and sign up there. Um, super cheap, super fun. There you go. Super simple. Super simple.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

We just do it all, get in there, get good touches, get her done.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

So, anyway, um this offseason has been completely crazy.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Like and it's only been a few weeks.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, and and that's nuts. I've been doing this for a while now, and this has been the craziest one by by a mile. It's not, it's never been anything like this. Yeah. Um I will tell you before I start going on my little my little rant, which I will eventually do. Um, I'm thrilled with the level of talent we've got in. You know, like every club, obviously we've lost players, we've lost players on some of our top teams. Um, those are always tough losses. Um, although to me, I argue anybody's a tough loss that you really want to be a part of your club. Of course. And we there's more than just I care just as much about some of the girls in our threes and fours as I do our ones, because at the end of the day, we are kind of they're all kind of like family to me. Yeah. And so um hate to see them go, but I mean, some of the talent we've gotten in has been incredible. Like I mean it's been fun. It has been, you know, um amazing. We still have some spots to fill, but like the the the core is there. Um, you know, as an example, kind of talking about our our our 14s team. So, you know, our 13s team, um they which is now our 14s team, you know, we lost some players. Um that was obviously a bid, an open bid winning team. So we knew and we knew about you know most of them ahead of time. And I was very, very, very, very nervous. At least they're gonna be great. Yeah, they are huge. Like hey, that's what happens when you get an open bid, too, right? They are huge. So good talent. So if you've seen that, anybody who's seen that team knows they're fantastic, but they're four foot tall.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

And there was gonna come a point where those girls gonna be where they're with. They couldn't be in the front row anymore because they're just too small. And maybe it wouldn't, we you know, maybe it wouldn't have been next year, but it would have been eventually. Because after a while, you know, when you start doing it. And we're just telling them the truth and the honest, yeah, in our opinion, unless you're gonna grow seven inches or touch ten foot, you know, that kind of thing. And so, but now they have size. Oh, that's everywhere. I haven't seen everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

You know, we haven't even seen kids.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Again, I didn't know what we're gonna get coming in the trials. You just see names, and you know, now that my daughter doesn't play anymore, I don't know all these names anymore. Right. So he's not cool anymore. I'm not cool anymore. And so I just kind of when they walked in, we're like, man, there's some tall girls here, like tall, athletic girls. Now can they play volleyball? And and they can. There's definitely Cadia's got her work cut out. So Cadia's gonna be the coach of that team. Um, they are raw, they're definitely not as um uh fine-tuned as what they had what we had last year. But I mean, this team is gonna get better and better and better. It's okay I would say they're almost the mirror image of her 14s from last year, her current 15s. You know, like the you know, yeah, the talent's there.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Talent is there, it's just gonna take her some time.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

They may have a couple spots where it's like, you know, we're still figuring this out, the speed of the game, and yeah, you know, that kind of thing. But I am Well, they got the right woman for the work cut out for her, but I I know this team's gonna be humming by the end of the year. I cannot wait. Oh, that's gonna be fun. It's gonna be on your watch list. Very, very, very exciting. You know, and same, you know, and then of course her 15s team, which was last year's 14s team. Just wait till you see their editions. We are going to be.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

I heard about their additions. I heard some very good things.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yes, they we've gotten we've got, I mean, they were already good. They didn't have to do anything. We didn't really, you know, we only lost a couple girls, but I mean, the what we've gained, that that team is just it's gonna be fun. I cannot wait to watch that team. And then your new team. I know, I'm super excited. They're pretty good at volleyball.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

I mean, you know, no pressure, but no pressure, but four consecutive bids for that team, two consecutive USA bids. Um, we just added more talent. Yeah, and so they're yeah, they're gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

And they know, like we were talking like after tryouts and stuff, and they're like, we know it's gonna be a little harder. Like, especially I always tell people that big jump from 15 to 16, the talent a lot of girls grow that year, like a lot. Like you you'll you don't see the same girls come in from 15 to 16s, yeah, especially if they're progressing like they should be in the offseason. But I told them I was like, it's it's gonna be fun, it's gonna be tough. We're gonna challenge ourselves, hopefully get into some open tournaments um and things like that. But they have this skill and they have the talent and they they will they have the drive, most importantly. I have to say something. This team there's not once in the years of me watching them never thought like not every player on that team doesn't give their 100%. Yeah, they give always 100%. Yeah, and no matter who like new comes in to join them, that person somehow roll like rolls with them and is like, oh, I'm giving my 100%. Yeah, because they have no choice.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yeah, because when you see everybody else working hard, you can't be a newcomer in there and go halfway. You've gotta you've gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

So yeah, they're so I think those girls have done a great job like with new girls coming in, making them feel like, hey, we're here to compete, we're here to get better, we're here to win. Yeah, and all that. You know, they're just excited to see some really good competition this year, and it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun in the gym, like even scrimmage days. I know with all these agents.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

I'm really excited top teams. Even like the the second 16 team, they're they they've reloaded, they've they lost a few, but they've gained a few. That team's studs team.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

And they're tall too. They're a big they're a big group.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah, I think they're probably as big or bigger than your team. Yeah, and then the 100%. Even the third and fourth 16s team, they're all so good. And 17s, 17s may have been the best trials we've ever had. I mean, as far as we have four amazing 17s teams. That's exciting. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Like, I mean, I I cannot wait. That's really exciting. It is they are gonna be awesome. Yeah, awesome. I mean, all the way from Emma's team down. Everybody everybody who walked in that gym for 17s was a great player. Yeah, and we've I mean, you know, it's just not bad.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

I'm excited for like their new additions for that for that team. And I was talking to some of the girls and all of that, and I was like, You guys excited?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

They're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are. They they they filled some holes that they needed. While that was a great team last year, they did have, as you know, they had some holes. We should we struggled, and everyone knows where our struggles were last year, and I think those struggles have definitely oh, they've those straight those I don't see those as being struggles, those weaknesses have become strengths, yes, and I think that's the great thing about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

So hopefully, like now I think they're a well balanced team. Very much so. Like, yeah, yeah. You know, they're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

There's not we're not gonna have those weak rotations or you know, weaker rotations. It's it's gonna be a strong across the board. It's gonna be a lot of competition. It's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

It's gonna be fun for those girls. I can't, I told them, I told Fernanda I was like, Can you put me on your roster? Because I'm I can wanna I want to watch them because this is gonna be fun knowing your new additions and everything.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah, I mean I'm really I'm really, really excited about that.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

So just you know, I'm gonna just letting you know now, Davis, you're gonna have to add me to the tournament. Yeah, you know, right there.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Well, I'm working on I'm working on the schedule, so we'll see what we can do. It's it's it's gonna be this schedule. Yeah, you can do it if you want. It's gonna it's so hard this year because for those of you who don't know, um, ASICs, their Florida regional qualifier, has moved to Easter weekend for next year. Messed up. And there are like seven other qualifiers on that weekend. We all know Easter weekend is not for Easter. Easter weekend is for volleyball and for out-of-state volleyball for us. It's always been Chicago or Atlanta. Yeah. But not this year. This year we're gonna be in the lovely city of Orlando, Florida for Easter weekend, which really throws the uh a wrench into all the other tournaments. It does.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

But you know what? Like, this is the mom out of me. I get to spend Easter with my kids. Yeah, you know, like you know, for the day of. It's just gonna be weird. Like, come watch mommy win a bed.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Easter Sunday. It's gonna be interesting because you know, ASICs usually has so many trickle down bids because it's the last qualifier. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Now it's like right in the middle. Well, now you just have to perform and perform your best, and I'll let the region take its reason region's course throughout the rest of the season. But yeah, so I'm gonna have to learn basically finish first.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

I'm gonna have to learn how all these trickle downs work in in regionals because you know it's never really it's always been the last the last qualifier.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Well, now it's like if they get a bid, then their bid goes back to their region. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

So anyway, hopefully we already have our bid, and so we don't have to worry about it. But it will be Yeah, we're gonna work. It's gonna be very interesting uh where we're gonna go. We haven't really decided I'm I'm I I almost can tell you, but not quite yet. But it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Can you give me like an exciting? Not necessarily my teams, but like well, we're trying to do Boston. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

That's a good one, I've always heard. Philly is gonna be tricky. I want to do Philly, but I've never I've still never been to Philly for the tournament. I've been to the city, but never the tournament. I've been there twice for the tournament. Yeah, Kansas City is very likely, and I love Joe's barbecue. That was your recommendation. You're welcome. Joe's Joe's barbecue is where it's at.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

I saw Patrick Mahomes' brother there.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. So he's probably picking up their food. Yeah. I've had dreams about it. I'm not gonna lie. It's that it's that good.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

I'm a little upset with Davis though, because when he went last time, he was supposed to bring me back something he didn't. I thought it was really rude, but it's okay. Yeah, well, you know, he probably did bring it and just ate it.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I did. It would have never made it. It would have never made it.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

If he just ate it on the plane, I know. I know.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah, but anyway, so yeah, we're any any like super out west. We're debating. There's there's Vegas, it's just so expensive. Yeah, it's so expensive, and then there's Spokane, Washington, which I would love to do that one, but it's so far.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

You have to like leave earlier.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, and like Reno, as we found with the eight teens, Reno is just so difficult to get in and out of. Like it's like a you know, Vernetta had to take two stops and flew through the night to come back. It was just it was rough. It's a tiny, it's a little tiny city, it's the biggest little city in America.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

You want to try some of these, it's yeah, it's nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

And we still can't do Dallas because Dallas is all spread out. So there's not as there's not as many options as I like. Um, I'm still kind of rooting for Vegas, but it's hard to justify just because the expenses and you know when it is and and all that kind of stuff. So anyway, we will see. And and St. Louis is another possibility too. St. Louis. But for youngers, not for yours. That's the youngins. St. Louis becomes Indianapolis when they get older.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Oh same tournament. But anyway. Well, I'm down for any of those places, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

All right, so we have now come to the part of the program where I'm gonna I'm gonna speak my mind about what has happened during during this all.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

I don't care what you guys think.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yeah, so I want you know I'm gonna start out with the statement of I don't want it to seem like I'm against recruiting. Because I am okay with recruiting. All right. I'm okay with other clubs recruiting, I'm okay with us recruiting, even though we really don't recruit a whole lot. I'm I'm okay with it. However, what I what does bother me is the um unbelievable amount of in-season recruiting and the blatant in-season recruiting. Yeah. Where we have kids, not just our club, other clubs too, but you know, there's kids that have all that have already decided where they're gonna go next year, and we're sitting in early March, and they've already told their teammates, the parents have already told the other parents that they've already gone elsewhere because this club has been after them. There's so many things, there's so many things wrong with that. Um so I'm actually taking up a I'm actually trying to be in communication with uh the Florida region, the board at the Florida region to try to put some kind of rules in place where you can't. The clubs can't have contacts, can't offer commitments and things like that. Now it's gonna be difficult, and I know I'm never gonna stop recruiting. It's I'm not gonna be the people are teams are still gonna do it. Yeah, but it's so blatant. I mean, we have you know Instagram DMs, we have you know screenshots of the text messages, we have there's so many other things that are that are happening. Like you can get into this school if you if you come to our club for free. Oh yeah, all that kind of like high schools, like high schools, like for 12 and 13 year old girls. Oh, you're gonna tell me that to the outside of this. Um, so yeah, I mean that but that's been going on for a while, but it's getting it's just becoming wild. It's becoming more and more blatant that it's that it's happening. Oh my I mean there is there's a club passing out business cards at a tournament. Are you kidding me? Like, are we really doing this? Like, how tacky and unethical is that to pass out business cards for your club in the middle of a tournament? Like, let these kids focus on the game and their team.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

It's like, hey, how are you doing today? Come to our club. Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

I mean, that that's like me going to you know, somebody's wedding and be like, hey, next wedding, call me, I'll be your photographer.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

When you get divorced and we're engaged again.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah, I mean, it's it's so tacky, it's so, it's just so terrible to do that. And that that kind of thing has got to be stopped. That kind of thing's bad. It's gotta be it's just gotta be stopped. Um you know, you just can't, you can't expect the kid. So let's just say a kid does leave. Yeah. You're not how there's it's impossible to expect that kid to give the same effort to respect the coach the same because he knows he's not gonna be back next year. Yeah, and and here's my this is my this is my big stand on it. Can't do it in high school. Correct. Can't do it in college. So college can't talk to a kid before a certain date. Yeah, you would know that as recruiting coordinator, right? Yep, yep. Professional sports, yeah. You can't have contact with that player until after a certain date. So why do we allow it in club volleyball? Yeah, it makes zero sense to me that you can do that. It is there is in no way, shape, or form is it good for the sport. Yeah and if it's not good for it, if it's better it means it's bad for it. And if it's bad for it, why are we doing it? Yeah. And that's kind of I understand the direction of youth sports now. And sports in general is everything's a one-year contract. Nobody's gonna try to nobody's some people are just going in saying, we had a parent one year that came to one of our gyms and you know, we were like, hey, are you playing club? And they were like, No, but but we're gonna come here next year after that. And I'm like, You haven't even been at your club. Oh yeah, but we're only gonna stay here one year. Well, that's that's just wild to me. But yeah, there's this but in college it's the same way. Girls are playing one year and moving, one year moving, one year moving. There are acting out to a point I get it, but in the middle of the season, come on, guys.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, it's you know, it's different if parents like ask coaches and stuff, like, hey, like, what's the dynamic of your club? Can you share with me how you know this team's gonna look? Like what are your thoughts? Like, what are the team's thoughts? Whatever. Yeah. I like and all all jokes aside, I don't think this whole season I wanna I want to say maybe it was like ASICs where people start I started hearing parents asking more about clubs. Like, which is okay. That's the last tournament of the the year, right? Yeah. And we already know half these girls already know who they're gonna try out for by then, right? Which is fine. But to say that you have an offer to play on this exact team before there's like it even like ends.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

That's why. We found out that like for one of our one of our teams, one of our players at left, they've like they've had a group chat for two months. Oh with the new team.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Like, it's just like I'm thinking as a coach's standpoint, right? Like I want my girls 100% there. Yeah. And you guys also have to remember a lot of these teams sign up for AAUs in the beginning of season, which is a stupid amount of time after the season ends.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

These girls that are committing to school like or schools, excuse me, they're committing to clubs even before the season ends, then not only has to finish the season with them, but they're still probably playing their all maybe regular season possibly. Yeah. Because if especially if they haven't gone to bed because they still want that chance. But they're also still thinking like after a lot of school, this is why I want to go X place. And and the minute you think that, that's gonna change your mind of of and and and your and your way of playing, right? But these girls, but if they're doing that, here comes AAUs, like now you're just there just to be there and yeah, you're not fully you're not even fully engaged. Your body language, your the what your attitude, the everything is just showing like why. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

And and again, I I do understand that like you said, a lot of it is parents reaching out and doing it. Um and that's where it's gonna get tricky, as far as like, you know, if a if a if a parent calls me and talks to me, I mean, it's hard for me to say I can't talk to you. That would be some of the things that have to be ironed out. But for me, the big thing is announcing commitments, starting group chats, messaging, you know, private messaging on Instagram, which you're not supposed to do anyway, but that's another story. You know, things like that. That's gotta be eliminated.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Well, like, for instance, like there, and I'm just I'm seeing the coach's side of this, right? Let's say coaches started announcing their club for the following year. Yeah. You you can't. And then they're like, oh, it and and they're gonna stay coach. You want your kid to stay coaching that team, exactly. Knowing like, you know, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

And we've talked about this before. When a club, when a coach tells a club, I'm going to a new club, yeah, as a director, you really rarely do you have any other option but to let that coach go. Correct. I know parents don't understand it, but the coach is not fully engaged. The coach is already thinking about their next step. The coach is going to try to bring those players to them, and they're not going to give it their all. Yeah, what's the difference of that and a and a player? Exactly. It's the exact same thing. Exactly. It's the exact same thing. So it's like a double standard if you don't think of it that way. And so that's why I think the rules have got they've got to be some kind of rule. And I'm not asking for a investigative committee. Yeah. There's still going to be some recruiting going on, but when you're passing out business cards and announcing commits in March, April, May, and June, yeah, that's gotta stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait till the end of wait till the end of AAUs, make everybody push their tryouts back up a few a couple weeks. That's fine too. But there's got to be a little bit of time. Let people cool off, compress decompress, you know, and you really should not be making you should not be making decisions about what club you're gonna go to in March because the season has ups and downs. Yep. There's everybody's had moments in their season where I'm unhappy. Yep. You know, for the for the and other times of season where we're doing great. Yeah. Go to the end of the season, evaluate the season, and then make your decision. If you want to go, then you should absolutely go. Nobody's saying that you should have a three-year contract. But I just don't don't like the NCC recruiting. Yeah. That's my that's my one of my one of my rants.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

I can see that. I know I I don't disagree with you. Especially when it's like bland. Like it's wild. It is wild. Some of the stories I've heard of for a club, I'm like Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Yeah. I mean, after the player has recruited, even after a player has signed, you still have to worry about another club coming in and saying, I'll refund you, I'll take their deposit fee off of mine. And so I mean you still have to worry about that.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

I do miss where tryouts were like in September.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Oh my gosh, I wish we'd do it so well. Uniforms is the only reason I like it early. Yeah. Just so I know how to order uniforms. But I would sacrifice that any day to not have to do it now. Yeah. Nobody wants to try out now. Everybody's exhausted.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

So yes. I think there should be a date on that. Just like in in high school. Yeah. You cannot start anything like July 27th. Yeah. We start a regular game two weeks later.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Like, why? Why is there no set date in?

SPEAKER_00 23:18

I know. Well, it would be club. One of the issues is we have AAU. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe in well, there's AAU and there's USAV, and they would both have to agree. And those two organizations cannot agree the sky is blue. They can't agree on, they can't agree on anything. So they're never that that's going to be one of the issues.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

So that's the problem. I didn't know it needed to be both. I would never thought about it.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Because what can happen is you could just say, Oh, these are AAU tryouts. But I still believe there's a way, I still believe there's a way around it where you can say, Well, you're a USAV club, so you cannot have tryouts.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Period. But that's going to take a little bit of work.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Or like you, if if those are the girls, uh, yeah, no, I don't like that. Yeah. Yeah, I see that now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

So we'll have to, I mean, there's it definitely can be done. It's going to take a little bit of work from the region. It's going to take a little bit of a.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Well, let the region, you know, give me, give me a call. I'm not going to share my number, but you call Davis and you want some assistance. Yeah, I'm going to.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

I'm going to um but I but I am, I said, I am talking to the um to the head. He he's actually listened well. He actually in a lot of ways has agreed. It's just more so, it's always the it's the rule sounds great, but even I'll admit the execution is going to be difficult. Yeah. You know, how we're how are we going to enforce it? How are we how far are we going to go? Like I'm again, I know when I'm not asking for an investigative panel. Yeah. It's not that. I don't I don't want it to be that. It doesn't need to be like that, but just not this, not this bad. Yeah. You know, so that's my thing. All right. So while I'm at it, let me let's talk about something else that kind of is starting to bother me.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Um it's uh it's an episode about what's bothering Davis.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

What's bothering Davis, yeah. And among among other things. Um and again, I want to be clear on this. I love club volleyball. I really do. And and I love there's so many good people in club volleyball. I'm I'm friends with other club directors, you know, these kids, some of these kids that are in our club, not in our club, still care about them, even the ones that leave us, still care about them deeply. And and I realize that everybody leaves because they think it's for the best for them. And everybody, you know, it everybody is looking out for their best interest. And that's that's perfectly fine. Um, I think one of the problems that I have is there are there are some volleyball has become club volleyball has become such a big business, right? There's so much there's so much money in it now. Yeah you know um and so when you do that you have some of these some clubs are have learned sales techniques that are gonna help them provide sales and provide get what they want.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

And like certain catchy phrases, words, a little bit of everything, but uh different ways to do it, but like basically there's what you want to hear and what's the truth.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Sometimes those two things are the same thing, yeah, but a lot of times they're not. And one of the things about us that I think is is the number one reason why we lose the kids, a lot of the kids that we lose is because we refuse to tell you what you need to want to hear. And instead, we're gonna tell you the truth. And that gets us in trouble sometimes because people don't want to hear it. Yeah, the truth hurts. The truth does hurt. I get it, you know. I I totally understand.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

But they can't say like we were lying to them or we we didn't, you know, we stirred them in the wrong direction. We never did that.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Yeah, we've told the story that you'd rather have that dignity than lying. We we've we've told stories in the past where you know, we've told a player, look, you're you're not gonna be a setter at this level. Yeah. Um player says, Yes, I am gonna go somewhere else. They go somewhere else. Next thing you know, we see them, and what are they doing? They're they're playing DS at another club. Yeah, you know, and so we lost them, but you know, they end up we ended up being right. You know, and it's just it's just kind of the way the way things go. Um one of the things that one of the biggest, there's a couple con I call them cons. One of the biggest cons in volleyball is we gotta play open. We gotta play open. Now again, open, there's when I say playing open, I'm talking about playing open in qualifiers. Right? Yeah, yeah. Playing open in Gasparilla is not the same as playing open in Big South. Totally different. Yes. Anybody can anybody most players can can play open in Gasparilla and be okay. Yeah, yeah. Open in qualifiers, I know come on.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

You're telling me A5 is not going to Gasparilla, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Come on. So a lot of we've we've lost some kids this year and in the past because they say, well, we're going to play open. We're gonna go play, you know, open. So here's my thing. If you're five foot four and you're touching, and you're sixteen years old, and you're touching eight foot nine, how in the w and your right side, how in the world are you going to do block someone who's six foot one touching ten feet on the outside? Like, what are you going to do?

SPEAKER_01 28:13

You're not gonna do anything.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

You're not gonna and you're gonna get the people behind you hurt. Yeah, and it's just not it's like it's this is my equivalent. I can play LeBron James one-on-one every day, and I will never be able to play LeBron James one-on-one. Every day will just be heartbreak and pain for me. Yeah, every single time. Yeah, and and it and that doesn't mean that I'm not good at basketball. It doesn't mean that, you know, it doesn't mean that I should quit. It just means I'm not at that level. And everybody wants to be open, but open is rough, man. If you're not a great team, open is is it is tough. Oh, it is extremely completely demoralizing if you're not at that level.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Yeah, remember when I coached eight teens on one year? It's not that we weren't open team, we had open level players, but not everyone was an open level player. And the girls that weren't, they did everything they could, you know, and they're you know, and that year everyone wanted to, right? And we did it, right? Because we we wanted to, we had to, right? And it was great, and the girls did keep up playing, and that was a team that was better than most A-Tens.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Oh, yeah. When you have a division one setter, you had several division two divisions. Yeah, I remember everyone that team signed.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Everyone signed somewhere, yeah. But we just did not have the height. That was the problem. We didn't have the height, we still had talent. They were like you said, they're still great players, but when we would lose or we would make it far or whatever, we would get crutched. Oh, yeah. And it and that's just I'm like, you just gotta watch your face at this point, or you gotta do this. We we can't stop someone that's 6'5 over there that's signing to the University of Florida and you know, Kentucky and all these places, whatever, it's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

No, and there's nothing wrong. I mean, again, nothing wrong with we had we've had mint, we've had a bunch of division one signs, and they haven't they they haven't played open. I mean, only only one of them has actually played in open. Yeah, you're right. You know, I mean it's we had two this year. Yeah, they played in American and Liberty and two Division I signees, you know. We had another, you know, Libero signed D one on our twos team, played nothing but American. Yeah, you know, and we've had I mean it's just it's it's just not the case.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

It's just not you have to have the team for it. Absolutely. You just have to.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

And it and it's I always think it's funny um that people think that a coach, because the argument is gonna be, well, if you play open, there's gonna be coaches there watching you. Yeah, but they're not watching you, they're watching the person that's slamming the ball on your head.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

You still gotta do your part to stand out in the court. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

And I mean, I I I remember um you know Jordan Byrd. Remember her? She um she played, I can't remember the name of the club. I want to say it was one of the Sarasota clubs that she played for. And she was 6'4, 6'5, and she played, I mean, the team, her everyone her team was a foot shorter than her. Yeah. Not a good team. I want to say they played Liberty or USA, and even in that, not getting bids. But you could walk by her court and just glance and be like, okay, that's a division one player. Yeah. She signed with Texas on a full scholarship. Yeah. It's it's just that's what I mean. I always tell people, go look at your dream school's roster. Your dream school is University of Florida. Go look at their roster. Go look at their front row. Look at how tall they are, look at what they touch.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Yeah. And we're not saying short people can't, but it's the top trick.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Yeah, it's the remote. It's all that. Like they don't have five foot five outside hitters. They don't. Yeah. And if they do, she touches 10-5. She's dumping her height. Right. We just they just don't have it, and that's okay. Yeah. You know, and so No, I get it. I get your Yeah, that's so that's that's my thing is you if that's what you want, just be careful what you ask for because it could be it could be very demoralizing to lose all those all those games unless you're being competitive. Yeah, yeah. And most people, the problem is most people don't know what competitive is. And by the time you realize you're not competitive, it's too late. Yeah. You're already you're already signed up and you're stuck, and then you just have a whole a whole year full of getting your year full of getting your brains breeding. Yeah. And that's just not gonna be fun. Um, and I don't think that I don't think that's good for their growth. I don't think it's good for their love of the game. And, you know, I feel bad. I feel bad for those kids because it's not open is not all that it's cracked up to be. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

You want to be where you're gonna be coached, you want to be at a club that's gonna coach you, that's gonna put you in the best situations. If you see that you're capable and able to do that, because you have the girls and you have the talent, then great. But yeah, if not, don't put it them in something that you know, like as a director or as a coach, it's not gonna benefit them. Yeah. At the end of the day, it's yeah, it's what's good for the girls. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

And again, like you know, talking about our 18 team this year, they played no Liberty and American. Yeah. The year prior, you know, they started out playing in open, and we realized this is a bad idea. Yeah. They would just, they, there was just, it was completely uncompetitive for them. Um, it wasn't good. Then none of them were getting calls from coaches. Yeah, even though the coaches were on the court, again, they're not looking at them. Yeah, they're Penn State's not looking at us. It's just not it's just not the way it works. So we moved them down. That's when the coaches started calling, because that's when you have coaches that are actually at that level. Yeah. And a coach is going to find you. Jordan Bird, Jordan Byrd had coaches watching. Coaches are not so ignorant where they can't if you don't, they're not gonna find you if you're not playing in open. Yeah, that's just not the case. And so, you know, anyway, just my little one more little complaint. And then my next big con is similar, is you can only play for your, you know, for certain schools if you go to Club X, right? This club is the only one that's gonna get you there. Complete nonsense. That it's it's all about your talent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

That one cracks me up.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah, it's all about your it's all about your talent. The coaches could care less what the jersey's.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

And the conversations I get to have as college co with coaches and stuff or what they're looking for. And I've talked to quite a few coaches, especially on the sideline tournaments. They're gonna find you.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

They're gonna find you.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

They are absolutely going to find you, and they're gonna probably be at the spot where you probably fit the best too. Yeah, you know, and I just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

I'll give you a perfect example. When Kennedy Reid joined us, she played, she she jumped into AAU's, she did not do one thing for recruiting. She didn't, she wasn't signed up with sports recruits or NCSA or anything. She just basically showed up, played for us at I think we were, you know, whatever division we were in. I think we're USA. Yeah, and then um she was getting division one emails right away. Yeah, like right away. It's gonna happen. They're gonna find you. They're gonna find you. They're gonna find you. Unless you're hiding, and even then, even then they're gonna find you. Yeah. Like they're gonna find you. I can drop, I could drop in if we had a a 6-4 outside, I could drop her on our 17-4s and a coach would find her. Yeah. It's just that they're gonna find you.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

They're gonna read the room, they're gonna see it. Absolutely. I even like old player of mine, Zoe Evans. Do you remember her? We played American.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

That's right. You did.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

We played American. The girl went to Arkansas.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

And and started. And started and like played.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

And played and played on one of their best teams in a long time. Like, they're gonna find you.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

They will find you. They will find you. They're not stupid. There's a reason they're they're really good at volleyball and and and seeing talent.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

They're really they're even better at finding it.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Yeah, if they weren't, they wouldn't be. What are you doing to your microphone?

SPEAKER_01 36:13

I'm like, it's just not like my neck hurts. I'm messing with it. I'm sorry. Trying to get comfortable.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

You want to just take it off and hold it? Yeah, I'm gonna get you. I'll get you a headset like Janet Johnson or something, you know. Jeez. I'm like, what is she gonna break our microphone over here? I'm sorry, guys. Anyway, yeah, sorry. Anyway, um, but yeah, they will they will totally find you. Um yeah, now that's now that top talent we played American. You did, that's right. Yeah, top talent's gonna stand out no matter what. And and coaches are looking at certain things.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

A lot of it is just size, that politicism is the girls' part in their recruitment process. Yeah, you got an email, you know how to send an email, yeah. Reach out to the coach. They're all reachable.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Yes, you can get in touch with any college coach you want, it's not that hard.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

You know, I always my favorite thing is coach, why why don't I have colleges reaching out? Well, what are you doing for colleges to reach out?

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Well, what do you mean? And like it's like, no, like, yeah, I get it. Yes, college coaches do come, but there's also other tournaments happening throughout the whole year and some at the same exact time.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Where they're not always gonna be there, right? We're in the south. We have a lot more southern schools at ours than we probably have northeast schools. Right. Like, it's just things like that too. I'm like, you guys gotta be aware, like, and you've gotta do your part too.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Yeah. Well, and I think a lot of it, I think a lot of players probably feel like, well, instead of having to send emails and do this work, I'll just go play open and then they'll just be there. No, you still that's that's not really again. Yes, if you're 6'3 and touching 10-4, yes, that could that'll work. Yeah, but if you're not, which most players, especially in Florida, are not, because we're not a big we don't have six too many six four girls in Florida. We're not Texas. We're not Texas, we're not, you know, Nebraska, those kinds of those kind of places. So if you don't have, so just do your job, do your, you know, do your email, send your emails, do what you gotta do. You're gonna get recruited no matter what club you play for. If you're if you can play, they're not coaches are very good at their job, that's why they have that job. Yeah, and so they can find, they will find you. Stop running away from stop trying to get to a certain club because you think that's the only way it's gonna happen. Yeah. But truth of the matter is, until people stop leaving to go to certain clubs, that's it's gonna continue to happen. Yeah, the trend's always it's gonna stay that way. Yeah. And so, you know, it, you know, it's just it's just kind of the way it goes. And we're, you know, we just have to, we just have to, on our side, you know, we just have to keep trying our best to develop kids, you know, hoping they'll stay and you know, go through the process. Um, but it is it's not a it's just it's very tricky. And again, going back to the whole in-season recruiting, it's very tricky when when other clubs are recruiting your kids in the middle of the season and you have no idea. You know, you're just trying to, you're just trying to develop them, and you're just trying to, you know, have a good season and and work hard and you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

That's unfair to the other girls on the team too, so that are not doing that.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

It is, but other than that, it's great. Everything is great for volleyball. No.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

I I got to vent, so I feel better.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

And again, I love the sport. Yeah. For me though, when I can see something that I I know is harming the sport, it's not good. I'm gonna speak out. And so hopefully, you know, hopefully things do get better. Hopefully, people start to realize some of these things. And, you know, it's it is a business and people are trying to sell you. So just hopefully parents will be smart about it, kids will be smart about it, and and uh, you know, make the best decision and not be influenced by you know false promises and that kind of thing. So anyway, sounds like a good way to finish up.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Right? So we are gonna get out of here. Just uh keep in mind we're in the off season right now, not a not a ton going on. Correct. Um, we're gonna, you know, some of us got college, I mean high school jobs to do and things like that. So we'll probably, you know, we'll probably pop in here.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Which one? Well, you got it, you're you're the one who has to share the news. So, you know, take your vote on where you think Davis is gonna be coaching high school. They're gonna say, like, I'm not gonna say. I don't want to be mean anybody like that.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Listen, no way. School of Davis. I I need I don't I I have coached basketball every year around this time. Well, I guess, you know, October, November. I'm not gonna do it anymore. I don't think I can do it anymore. I I need this time off to kind of do all my work and yeah, and uh so yeah, I will not be coaching high school anything. I can tell you that. I love that. Good for you. Yeah, but I'll be coming out, I'll be coming out watching you guys, watch your team, you know. It should be fun. Yeah, it should be a fun season. And like I said, we'll we'll pop in and out periodically. Um, but we'll definitely be back next year. Um, so we will talk to you soon. Bye.