“They are on their own”: Coaches forced to adapt as players unable to train as a team
“They are on their own”: Coaches forced to adapt as players unable to train as a team
Eric Boose / Sports Editor
If and when the University of San Diego volleyball team starts their first practice this fall, it will be their first time on the court — their first time actually playing volleyball — in at least five months.
That would only be if practice started this week, and there is no indication of that happening following the West Coast Conference’s indefinite postponement of all fall competition this week. Which means, as head coach Jennifer Petrie explains, if the team can practice this fall, they will not just be picking up where they left off in the spring.
“We are going to have to collaborate with Mark Lamoreaux, our strength coach, and our athletic training staff to make sure we are doing everything possible to ease them back into play without going full force the first couple weeks,” Petrie said. “You can do all of the individual workouts and all of the individual skill stuff, but until you are playing the game, whatever sport you are playing, it is going to take a little adjustment to get back to playing the elite speed that they were. With their bodies too, the jump count that they have, and being able to be in condition to sustain that level, that is going to take a while, and that is going to be a challenge for all of us, to get them back into elite playing shape.”
A summer without competition is a problem that every fall athlete at USD will have to overcome before they are ready for a full-speed game. With USD operating fully remotely due to San Diego’s early August increase in COVID-19 cases, Toreros will have to keep waiting even while other teams can get back together, women’s soccer head coach Louise Lieberman explained.
“I know there are some schools that have some of their players back, and they are able to do stuff in their bubble, but we are not allowed to because we are in San Diego, we are in California,” Lieberman said. “It is voluntary, but they have five or six or ten people where they can jump in and play five-on-five if they wanted to, whereas our teams are still at home on their own, so it does make it a little more complicated.”
And the challenges stretch beyond technical preparation. One of the difficulties for the men’s soccer team was finalizing their recruiting efforts during the altered spring semester, head coach Brian Quinn explained.
“The tough part was initially getting guys over the line, continually being diligent with our process of recruiting and working with admissions and then working with compliance to make sure that all the kids we had identified were taking care of their stuff without being able to bring them on campus, which is always a big, big part of recruiting at USD,” Quinn said. “The second part was being pretty consistent about touching base with our guys in regard to getting updates and finding out what they are doing with COVID. All of our international players went back home, and there was a little bit of anxiety because we were not sure when they would be able to return, and now that seems to be resolved.”
Once the new recruits were successfully signed on, all Quinn could do, like Lieberman and Petrie, was ask his players to train on their own.
“I think the big part for me is I keep harping on about when you come back to San Diego, be in shape,” Quinn said. “Don’t be waiting to try and say, ‘oh I’ll get fit, I’ll work on my conditioning when I get back.’ It’s going to be too late.”
To help his team keep in shape and connected with the coaching staff and one another, Quinn held weekly meetings with his players throughout the summer, individually and in position groups. Lieberman and Petrie did the same. All three coaches tried to be as clear with their expectations as possible and provided their players with workouts to do at home.
“In the spring before we got shut down, we made several instructional videos for our players and made a library of them, so they have access to training on their own,” Petrie said, explaining what her team had to work with. “We did a really good job of creating these videos from scratch because we never had them before, but now we have them, this whole library that they can go back to and work on footwork, and training, and individual skill stuff, so hopefully they are doing that all summer.”
But Petrie’s team had the opportunity to work on more than just technical skills.
“We have spent a lot of time developing our team and our individual athletes to be the best players that they can be in areas that are off the court, that includes mindset training, watching video, team bonding, leadership skills,” Petrie said. “There are a lot of intangibles that we have been working on to help us come into this fall season really prepared in ways where we have never had that opportunity before.”
Likewise, Lieberman described how her players have been developing more than just technical skills this summer.
“When you are with your team, sometimes it is a little easier to get going, but since they have not been able to be with their team they have newfound ways of holding themselves accountable and they have really enjoyed that process,” Lieberman said. “That has been an ongoing tune that I have heard with them, which is super cool. As coaches, you want your players to grow and develop as human beings more than anything. It seems like they have done that.”