Volleyball Should Still Be Fun

You can consider this blog my "Recruiting Thoughts from Salt Lake City".

I just landed in DFW about an hour ago. I was in Salt Lake City this weekend for the SLC Showdown Qualifier. It's quickly becoming one of my favorites to attend! I drove from the airport to a Starbucks near where my daughter's dance studio is located. I typically come here to work on Monday nights while she is at dance and at this point several of the barista's know me by name and my coffee order. Luckily tonight I am able to pick her up like normal.

I'm writing this with the full knowledge of what the next 6 weeks looks like for my team and I. There is going to be a lot of zoom calls, phone calls, texts, emails and everything else. There is not really a break at this point. Not only are we helping some of our juniors finish off their recruiting processes but we are trying to help prep all of our sophomores for June 15th. Qualifier season is over, but recruiting never stops. It's going to be a hectic and stressful time for athletes, parents, coaches and everyone else.

None of what is going to happen over the next few weeks and months changes the fact that volleyball should still be fun.

This morning in Salt Lake City I was glad to see 3 teams full of high level athletes playing what I can only call "sharks and minnows". I think they played some other games as well, but I'm sure I'm not up to speed on the names of them anymore.

At first it was curious, "why aren't they playing volleyball?" and I asked a couple parents and there was some water dripping on the court and so they weren't letting the athletes play until the dripping stopped or another court opened. Safety is an obvious concern in this situation.. The athletes, in an effort to NOT sit around and do nothing until the problem was fixed (3 teams of HIGH level athletes) started playing different variations of tag and duck duck goose. They had fun. They played games. These are arguably some of the best athletes in the country in their age group and when you took away the net and the jerseys, intensity and stress of a volleyball match, they just had fun. They acted like kids. I don't mean that in a negative or demeaning way at all. Many of them are barely teenagers.

I had a meeting with a family this week about recruiting and camps for her this summer. Through the conversation I was reminded that she wasn't yet old enough to have a driver's permit yet.

I know there are a lot of people out there they say "high-level" athletes need to sacrifice a lot of things and it many situations they do. But we can't forget that they are kids first. They need to have fun first. They need to enjoy and love the sport; they need to love competition; and they need to remember that it's a game.

This morning was a good reminder that, yes:

Train hard.

Have high expectations

Compete with intensity.

Do some extra workouts.

Improve your skills.

Make yourself better

Learn and grow from your coaches and trainers.

Get stronger.

All of those things are good.

In the middle of all of that, please remember to have fun.

Take a break.

Play games with your friends.

Go to prom!

Read a book.

Have conversations that aren't about volleyball.

You can take the recruiting process seriously and still remember to have fun. In fact, I think coaches take notice of things like that.