The role of the college coach
Guest Author: Kari Thompson
I’m on a break from collegiate coaching. Do I miss coaching college volleyball? Yes. I miss the athletes, I miss the team atmosphere, I miss the challenges, I miss the competitions, I miss the hard work, but I mostly miss helping student-athletes achieve their goals and dreams. As a coach you care for the person, not just the athlete. You get to know student-athletes throughout the recruiting process and you spend countless hours working with them through college. You are there for their ups and downs. You connect with them. Hopefully you leave a positive impact on their life because they have left one on yours.
Starting out
During the recruiting process, I always say
I’m not going to be your parent or your friend, I’m your coach. I’m going to challenge and push you, but I’m also going to support and care for you
The coach role has been expanding over the years. There are many demands and expectations on student-athletes. They need to perform at a high level. They need to succeed. Are they prepared for all of the demands coming out of high school?
Performing and Winning
I’m competitive, I always want to win. Which coach doesn’t? I have heard some coaches ask about their athletes, ‘Do you think they want to win?’ Athletes are also competitors, they want to win. Do they always know how to win or put themselves in the right position to win? No. To win, athletes need to perform. A student-athletes entire well-being influences their ability to perform: the physical, mental, academic, nutritional, social, family, financial and spiritual. These are fluid and every changing components of their world and then add the stress of training, competitions, travel, missed class and pressure to perform.
Trust and Support
Some programs are fortunate and have support staff to help support the student-athletes need, but ultimately it is the coach who is the first contact. Athletes trust their coaches. Do coaches have the resources or experience they need to help them, or the insight to help them before one reaches a critical point? I know I didn’t. I was a young first-time Head Coach and it seemed every experience was a life learning one. I navigated as best as I knew how, utilizing every resource I could, but never felt like I was doing enough.
As a coach you don’t sleep a lot, not because you’re worried about the next game, but because you know the challenges and struggles your student-athletes are facing. Your heart breaks when you see them suffer and grieve. You feel their emotions as you console them and reassure them that they are strong, capable and will endure. When all you can do is hug tighter as they sob grieving a loss of a loved one, or tell them to squeeze your hand harder as they lay on the court in excruciating pain from an injury. The more years you coach, the more you see and feel, but it doesn’t lessen the importance of each event.
College Stress
During freshman year scheduling classes or just deciding what, where or when to eat will add stress to the student-athlete life. I would tell each incoming freshman classes that even though my personal freshman year is getting further and further in the past, I continue to experience a freshman year each year since. It may seem like they are the only ones feeling stress, or are homesick, or can’t focus on anything but the exam on exam days. The truth is they are not alone. That isn’t to say their stresses are not important and I don’t care; it is to say that I can help them, and please don’t keep it all bottled up inside. I was the worst at asking for help and still to this day struggle with this. I was independent since age two and I was going to figure it out on my own. I can relate, but it doesn’t make it the right path. The problem is a student-athlete is competing against an opponent and they could be utilizing their resources better. Yes, they will figure it out eventually, but when does eventually happen and what is sacrificed in the meantime?
Development, growth and saying goodbye
When senior year finally comes, student-athletes are confident and have everything figured out. They can hardly remember what it was like to be a freshman and they can’t relate to the incoming freshmen class, labeling them as ‘immature’. They are so focused on getting the best job or internship and stressing about what is best. Then they rethink that life plan, or they realize the sport they play is coming to an end, and it’s all happening too fast. A coach is there through it all. It is an honor to be an active participant in the journey of young student-athletes and when they play their last match or game or compete their last round or meet, it is bittersweet. There is sadness but there is also joy, because as a coach, you know they are prepared for the next chapter in their life.
Coping with the current situation
As a spectator this spring I had first-hand experiences watching student-athletes seasons come to a silent halt. Watching coaches tell seniors-athletes, this tournament, this season and your collegiate careers are over. Without warning. Without the traditional senior moment. Seeing the heartache felt by both coach and athlete was excruciating, and I was just a bystander. These athletes care, these coaches care. An immense amount of hard work was put in and tough choices were made to get them to this point in their careers, and in one somber moment it was done. How do you prepare for that moment? As a coach you don’t prepare for something like that, but you rely on your past experiences, you rely on your resources, you rely on your ability to know your athletes and what each of them needs, and you just do what needs to be done. Coaches find ways, not just to win, but to care.
I’m competitive and compassionate. I’m a college coach.
About the Author
We would like to thank our guest author Kari Thompson for her article. Kari is a highly regarded coach in the collegiate volleyball community. Kari is from Amherst, Wisconsin and began her collegiate volleyball career at Division II Concordia-St Paul where she was named the team’s Most Improved Player in 2000. She transferred to Division 1 Green Bay and graduated from there in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Communication and the Arts. After graduation she served as a graduate assistant on the volleyball staff at Alabama where the Southeastern Conference powerhouse posted a 44-20 record during her 2 seasons. She was a 2010 recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s “Thirty Under 30” award recognizing the top young coaches in the country. Kari coached 10 seasons at NDSU where she served as Assistant Coach from 2006-10 before taking the position of Head Coach in 2010. In 2011, she won Summit League Coach of the Year honors and she led them to two NCAA tournament appearances during her seven seasons as head coach and compiled a 102-98 career record. She then went on to be Head Coach of the Saluki Volleyball program in 2017/2018 in Southern Illinois University. After coaching collegiate volleyball for the past 12 years she is currently taking a break from coaching to explore other career interests and opportunities.
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